Diana at her Bath

This Diana at her Bath, around 1715, in the Louvre, is one of Watteau's rare mythological paintings. The goddess of the hunt at her bath provided a pretext for the female nude within a landscape setting, a subject more commonly associated with the academic tradition Watteau generally avoided. Watteau painted in oil on panel and canvas using luminous brushstrokes laid over careful preparation, achieving a shimmering surface that captures the play of light on silk and the atmosphere of damp par...

The nude figure of Diana is rendered with delicate, pearlescent flesh tones against a dark woodland backdrop. Watteau's treatment of the nude combines sensuous observation with the poetic refinement characteristic of his entire oeuvre.