Diana and Her Nymphs Bathing

Jean-François de Troy was among the most talented and underrated French painters of the early eighteenth century, and his Diana and Her Nymphs Bathing of 1722 shows his graceful synthesis of the classical tradition and Rococo sensibility. The subject — Diana surprised at her bath, with or without the tragic Actaeon narrative — had been a vehicle for the female nude since Cranach and Titian and remained enduringly popular. De Troy's version engages the tradition with a freshness and compositional intelligence that set him apart from more formulaic practitioners of mythological painting in the early Rococo.

De Troy arranges the bathing nymphs in a forest stream or grotto with Diana at center. The cool, limpid water and dappled forest light create an atmosphere of secrecy and sensual pleasure, with the women's varied poses demonstrating De Troy's command of the idealized female figure.