The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau)
1879 · Oil on canvas · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)
- Year
- 1879
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 300 × 218 cm
- Collection
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Movement
- Academic
Venus stands on a scallop shell drawn by a dolphin, wringing out her long hair as she rises from the sea, surrounded by nymphs, tritons blowing conch shells and a sky full of putti. Bouguereau painted the three-metre canvas in Paris in 1879 and showed it at the Salon that year, where it was bought by the French state. The subject deliberately recalls Botticelli and Raphael, but the figure, modelled on a studio pose with the weight on one hip, is smoothly finished in the polished academic manner that made Bouguereau the most successful painter of the Third Republic and, later, the chief target of the modernists. The flesh is painted without a visible brushstroke. The canvas has been in the Musée d'Orsay since the museum opened in 1986.
This full-bleed edition prints the work edge to edge from a high-resolution scan of the original, very slightly cropped (a few percent at most) to fit the sheet. The gallery edition shows the whole work, uncropped. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A tall, polished Venus with nymphs and putti, for a bedroom, bathroom or dressing room with a touch of grandeur at 24×32 in gilt or dark wood. A cream, pale blue or sea-green wall keeps the flesh tones soft.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Academic painting
- Era
- 19th century (1879)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, anniversary, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×32. Prints at 12×16, 18×24, 24×32 in — 12×16 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 18×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×32 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural wood frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Birth of Venus in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Birth of Venus painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
