The setting of the sun

The Setting of the Sun (1752), in the Wallace Collection, depicts Apollo's descent at day's end, accompanied by sea nymphs and attended by the marine deities who emerge at twilight. The painting is the companion to The Rising of the Sun, together forming a cosmological cycle that traces the sun god's journey across the heavens. These monumental mythological compositions, among Boucher's largest and most ambitious works, were originally designed as tapestry cartoons for the Gobelins manufactory. The Wallace Collection's pair represents the pinnacle of Boucher's decorative mythology, combining cosmic grandeur with the sensuous beauty that defined his art.

Boucher fills the canvas with swirling figures and pearlescent clouds in a dynamic composition of movement and light. The warm sunset tones and the virtuosic rendering of nude figures in complex poses demonstrate his mastery of the grand decorative manner.