Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings Signed and dated (lower right): f-Boucher 1751
Gallery Label Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV, greatly admired Boucher and was his patroness from 1747 until her death in 1764. This famous work is one of a pair that she commissioned for the dressing room at Bellevue, her château near Paris. In 1750 she had acted the title role in a play, staged at Versailles, called "The Toilet of Venus," and while this is not a portrait, a flattering allusion may well have been intended.
Notes This picture and its pendant "Venus Consoling Love" (Natonal Gallery of Art, Washington) are described by Dezallier d'Argenville in his "Voyage pittoresque des environs de Paris" (Ref. 1762) as decorating the appartement des bains of Madame de Pompadour's château de Bellevue.
Provenance marquise de Pompadour, appartement des bains, château de Bellevue (1751–d. 1764; inv., 1764, no. 1230.–78); her brother, Abel François Poisson, marquis de Vandières, later marquis de Marigny, still later marquis de Ménars, Paris (1764–d. 1781; his estate sale, Basan & Joullain, Paris, March 18–April 6, 1782, no. 19, for 587 livres to Chéreau); Chéreau (from 1782); Monsieur de Boullongne (his estate sale, Georges & Bizet, Paris, November 19, 1787, no. 6, for 460 livres to Le Brun); [Le Brun, Paris, from 1787]; Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, Paris (his anonymous sale, Le Brun, Paris, April 21–30, 1788, no. 156, for 396 livres to Marin); Monsieur Marin (1788–90; his estate sale, Le Brun, jeune & Saubert, Paris, March 22, 1790, no. 336 [with reversed dimensions], for 316 livres to Le Brun jeune [bought in?]); ?the maternal grandfather or great grandfather of the comte de la Béraudière (from 1790); comte Jacques de la Béraudière, Paris (by 1880–85; his estate sale, Mannheim, Féral, Haro et al., Paris, May 18–30, 1885, no. 4, ill., for Fr 133,000 to Lacroix); Lacroix (from 1885); [C. J. Wertheimer, London; sold by 1895 to Mrs. Vanderbilt]; Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, New York (until 1895); William K. Vanderbilt, New York (1895–d. 1920)
Exhibition History New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century," November 6, 1935–January 5, 1936, no. 30.
Worcester Art Museum. "Condition: Excellent," March 22–April 22, 1951, no. 5.
Pittsburgh. Carnegie Institute. "French Painting: 1100–1900," October 18–December 2, 1951, no. 88.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 128.
Kansas City, Mo. William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art. "The Century of Mozart," January 15–March 1, 1956, no. 7.
Hartford. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Homage to Mozart," March 22–April 29, 1956, no. 7.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 69).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 15, 1970–February 15, 1971, no. 304.
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "Paris — New York, A Continuing Romance," November 3–December 17, 1977, no. 30.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," February 17–May 4, 1986, no. 60.
Detroit. Detroit Institute of Arts. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," May 27–August 17, 1986, no. 60.
Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "François Boucher, 1703–1770," September 19, 1986–January 5, 1987, no. 60.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "Masterpieces of Western European Painting of the XVIth–XXth Centuries from the Museums of the European Countries and USA," October 2, 1989–January 31, 1990, no. 18.
Versailles. Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon. "Madame de Pompadour et les arts," February 14–May 19, 2002, no. 47.
Munich. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung. "Madame de Pompadour et les arts," June 14–September 15, 2002, no. 47.
London. National Gallery. "Madame de Pompadour et les arts," October 16, 2002–January 12, 2003, no. 47.
References D[ezallier d'Argenville, Antoine-Nicolas]. Voyage pittoresque des environs de Paris, ou description des maisons royales, châteaux & autres lieux de plaisance, situés à quinze lieues aux environs de cette ville . 2nd ed. Paris, 1762, p. 32, notes that two works by Boucher decorate the "appartement des bains" at the château de Bellevue: "Vénus dans le bain, & Vénus à sa toilette servie par les Amours [our picture]".Posthumous inventory of Madame de Pompadour . 1764, no. 1230–78 [published in Jean Cordey, "Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour rédigé après son décès, Paris, 1939, p. 90], lists on the ground floor, in the vestibule of the Hôtel de Pompadour, Paris, "La Toilette [de] Vénus" [our picture] and "Vénus qui tient l'Amour" ["Venus Consoling Cupid," National Gallery of Art, Washington], valued at 900 livres.L'art du dix-huitième siècle . 1, 3rd ed. Paris, 1880, p. 191, discuss the picture's provenance and note that Jean-François Janinet made a coloured engraving from it.François Boucher . Paris, 1889, pp. 54–55 n. 1.in André Michel. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné de François Boucher . Paris, [1906], p. 19, no. 283, describe it as a portrait of Madame de Pompadour in the guise of Venus and note that it decorated her bathroom.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 2 (March 1907), p. 45.in Pierre de Nolhac. François Boucher, premier peintre du roi, 1703–1770 . Paris, 1907, p. 123, lists it with mythological subjects.Catalogue of the Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . 10th issue. New York, 1909, under Addenda, November 1906 to March 1907, Paintings Lent, in Gallery 19, unpaginated, as "lent by William K. Vanderbilt, 1907".Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (December 1920), pp. 268–69, ill.Boucher, premier peintre du roi . Paris, 1925, p. 93.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings . 9th ed. New York, 1931, pp. 28–29, no. B66–2.in French Painting and Sculpture of the XVIII Century . Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1935, p. 7, pl. 30.Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art . Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 230–31, no. 128, colorpl. 128.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), pp. 5, 36, ill.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings . 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 136–38, ill., mentions a pendant in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, which the Goncourts [see Ref. 1880, p. 192] called "Venus Bathing Cupid"; observes that our picture has been seperated from its original frame, which is now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (no. 573), since the Béraudière Sale of 1885; notes that Boucher treated this subject often, adding that the version closest to ours is the "Toilet of Venus" formerly in the collection of baron Alfred de Rothschild.Baroque and Rococo Art . New York, 1969, pp. 180–81, ill., states that despite its mythological subject, the picture possesses hardly any "essence of divinity," and has instead an atmosphere of "salon art".Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1970, p. 190 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].Apollo 97 (January 1973), p. 88, fig. 5, and ill. in color on cover, lists it among works formerly in the collection of Charles Alexandre de Calonne.Georgia Review 29 (Summer 1975), pp. 446, 465, fig. 10.François Boucher . 2, Lausanne, 1976, vol. 2, pp. 78–81, no. 376, fig. 1103, notes that according to numerous authors our picture and its pendant were executed for the Château de Bellevue, completed in 1751, but observes that there is no document to confirm this; confuses our picture with an oval of the same subject painted by Boucher for the palace at Choisy [formerly in the Rothschild collection].in Paris—New York: A Continuing Romance . Exh. cat., Wildenstein. New York, 1977, pp. 45–46, no. 30, fig. 37.L'oeuvre gravé de François Boucher dans la Collection Edmond de Rothschild . Paris, 1978, p. 300, no. 1225, ill.The Metropolitan Museum of Art . New York, 1980, p. 364, fig. 669 (color).in Diderot & l'art de Boucher à David, les Salons: 1759–1781 . Exh. cat., Hôtel de la Monnaie. Paris, 1984, pp. 140–42, no. 37, ill.in François Boucher, 1703–1770 . Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1986, pp. 255–58, no. 60, ill in color and on cover [French ed., 1986, pp. 256–58, no. 60, ill. (color)], proposes that there was, "(without any suggestion of portraiture) an element of self-identification in Madame de Pompadour's commissioning" of this picture and its pendant, the marquise having played the title role in a play called "La Toilette de Venus," at Versailles on February 25, 1750; comments upon the peculiar forms of the ewer and perfume burner, remarking that the artist's intention was clearly to create something not so much Greek in the sense of an archaeological reconstruction, as "à la greque" in the theatrical sense; notes that while it is in no sense an illustration of the stage, the picture seems to take a similar pleasure in its own artifice.Simiolus 17, no. 1 (1987), pp. 46, 51.Masterpieces of Western European Painting of the XVIth–XXth Centuries from the Museums of the European Countries and USA . Exh. cat., State Hermitage Museum. Leningrad [St. Petersburg], 1989, unpaginated, no. 18, ill in color.Art Bulletin 72 (March 1990), p. 77 n. 17.in Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France . Exh. cat., Colnaghi. New York, 1990, p. 113.The Loves of the Gods: Mythological Painting from Watteau to David . Exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum. New York, 1992, p. 412.in Creating French Culture: Treasures from the Bibliothèque nationale de France . Exh. cat., Library of Congress. New Haven, 1995, pp. 328–29, states that "contrary to what was long believed," Boucher does not seem to have endowed his Venus with Pompadour's personal features.in Faszination Venus: Bilder einer Göttin von Cranach bis Cabanel . Exh. cat., Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Cologne, 2000, pp. 153–54, 247, 264, ill. (in color and black and white), view the picture's garden setting as an expression of the "natural" beauty of Venus.in Madame de Pompadour et les arts . Exh. cat., Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon. Paris, 2002, pp. 176–77, no. 47, ill. in color, suggests that Boucher has ironically draped his Venus in the same diaphanous fabric commonly associated in the 18th century with representations of vestal virgins; remarks that the sculpted gilt putto reclining to the left of Venus recalls a similar ornamental carving in Boucher's 'Hercules and Omphale' (Pushkin Museum, Moscow); notes that in the 'salle de bains' at Bellevue the 'Toilet of Venus' hung to the right of its pendant, the 'Bath of Venus'.Rethinking Boucher . Los Angeles, 2006, p. 170, ill. p. 171.
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