The Birth of Venus | |
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Artist | Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
Year | 1753−1755 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 54 cm × 83 cm (21 in × 33 in) [1] |
Location | Musée Grobet-Labadié, Marseille, France |
The Birth of Venus ( French: La Naissance de Vénus) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, produced between 1753 and 1755. [2] It is held by the Musée Grobet-Labadié in Marseille. [1]
Fragonard used a mix of red chalk and other media to sketch the work before transferring it onto canvas. [3] This sketch is in the Smith College Museum of Art. [4] The Birth of Venus and its sketch are also an example of Fragonard's habit of reversing scene direction and figure positions in order to achieve an ideal composition; Fragonard had made multiple changes to subject placement between the sketch and the final version. [5]
Fragonard was inspired by François Boucher's The Triumph of Venus when he created this painting (Boucher was Fragonard's teacher).