Diane sortant du bain

1742

Oil on canvas, 22 1/2 × 28 3/4 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

A crescent moon, a bow and dead game identify Diana; what Boucher actually paints is the difference between skin, silk and fur.

Look at

Pink and pearl flesh against the blue drape and dark green wood makes the bodies the brightest, warmest thing on the canvas.
The two figures sit right of centre, one above the other, their legs crossing in diagonals; the left third is landscape and dogs.
Flesh is blended smooth, while pearls, ribbons and the birds' feathers are picked out in small, sharp touches.

Shown at the Salon of 1742; sold in 1783 with a pendant that was probably the Repos de Vénus now in Berlin.
Bought by the Louvre from a Paris owner, Van Cuyck, in 1852 for 3,200 francs.

Pendant: one of a pair of works made to hang together and be read against each other.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain