The Venus Series by François Boucher at the Wallace Collection ✎

Last year, I visited the Wallace Collection, and enjoyed The Venus Series by François Boucher, the Rococo master. 

The series is a celebrated group of three large-scale vertical paintings. The fourth got added into the mix years afterwards.

I really like Rococo. I think they are wonderful, silly and a pure aesthetic delight. I think today this art is considered rather passe. The colour palettes and forms are a wonderful way to explore ideas about femininity and luxury, even modern ones.

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The Judgment of Paris by François Boucher (1754)

The central panel. Gorgeous.

Rococo was all about lightness, charm, and curves. The cherubs are a decorative tool to better frame the composition. The tree goddesses do look like they could be sisters.

It depicts one of the most famous incidents of Greek mythology, leading to the Trojan War. It follows the story of Paris, a prince of Troy, who is forced to settle a dispute between three goddesses over who is the fairest: Juno, Minerva, and Venus. He picks Venus. In the myth of the judgment, she won the contest by bribing Paris. She promised him the hand of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world: Helen of Sparta.

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Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan by François Boucher (1754)

Love it. So magical.

In this dramatic composition of Boucher’s masterpiece, Vulcan (the Roman name for a Greek god) is the husband of Venus. He plays the role of the “wronged husband” who has just caught his wife in an affair with Mars, the god of war.

Moment in flagrante.

Venus is absorbed in romance. Mars appear startled.

Vulcan pulling back the golden netting, darker and less soft &, luminous.

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Venus and Vulcan by François Boucher (1746)

Another beautiful painting.

Venus visiting her husband Vulcan at his forge to request armor for her son, Aeneas. 

Venus seems to radiate light.

I love Venus’s wrap around the more rigid, angular, and dark-toned form of Vulcan. Boucher juxtaposes their bodies to create a visual harmony. The sheer number of cherubs with a swirling & upward energy leads the eye across the entire painting.

Cupid a Captive by François Boucher (1754)

Wonderful.  Based on the popular theme of love disarmed.

The central figure is Cupid, god of love.

Boucher has depicted him as being “captured” by a group of wood nymphs. 

They have taken his legendary bow and arrows and have playfully tied him up with garlands of flowers.