Venus Consoling Love

Venus Consoling Love (1751), at the National Gallery of Art, belongs to Boucher's series of Venus paintings that defined the Rococo image of the goddess. Venus is shown comforting the infant Cupid, creating a tender maternal image within a mythological framework. The painting demonstrates Boucher's ability to invest classical mythology with the intimacy and warmth of genre painting, presenting the goddess of love as a concerned mother rather than a distant deity.

Boucher renders Venus with his characteristic pearly flesh tones and soft, billowing drapery against a backdrop of clouds and sky. The pastel palette and fluid brushwork create an atmosphere of decorative sensuality typical of the mature Rococo.