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The Birth of Venus
Alexandre Cabanel · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889)
- Date
- 1863
- Dimensions
- 130 x 225 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Alexandre Cabanel’s Birth of Venus shows the newborn goddess of love lying on the crest of a wave, her eyes half-closed, while a group of cupids flutters above her blowing conch shells. It was the triumph of the Salon of 1863.
A closer look
Everything about the painting is smooth and polished: the pale, flawless skin, the long hair spreading over the foam, the soft blues of sea and sky. There are no visible brushstrokes, as academic taste required. Napoleon III bought it immediately for his personal collection. In the same year, Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass was being mocked at the Salon des Refusés; the contrast between the two nudes, one idealised and mythological, the other modern and real, sums up the artistic battle of the time.