The Declaration of Love
Artist: Jean François de Troy (French, 1679–1752)
Original Dimensions: 25 5/8" x 21"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (ca. 1724) "This celebrated painting and its nearby pendant, The Garter, exemplify a genre of painting known as tableaux de mode (paintings of fashionable society) established by de Troy. Rejecting religious or mythological subjects, artists represented the latest interior decoration, clothing, etiquette, and social mores. Here an amorous couple flirts beneath an image of Mars and Venus, relegated to wall decoration, while the eager dog hints none too subtly at the passions concealed behind their delicate gestures. In the 1720s, the meticulous rhyming of curves among picture frame, chair rail, and sofa was extremely in vogue, but in de Troy’s composition it also underscores the theme of physical union." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

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