Venus Disrobing for the Bath is an oil painting by Frederic Leighton, first exhibited in 1867. History Leighton's five contributions to the Royal Academy of 1867 were marked by an increasing devotion to Greek ideals, and by a refinement of finish.Staley 1906, p. 73. Among the pictures exhibited was Venus Disrobing for the Bath, one of the most debated of all the artist's paintings of the nude.Rhys 1900, pp. 24–25.
Analysis The paleness of the flesh-tint of this Venus aroused a criticism which has often been urged against his pictures that such a hue was not in nature. In imparting an ideal effect to an ideal subject, Leighton always, however, followed his own conviction that art has a law of its own, and a harmony of colour and form, derived and selected no doubt from natural loveliness, but not to be referred too closely to the natural, or to the average, in these things.Rhys 1900, p. 25.
The art critic J. B. Atkinson praised the work, declaring that "Mr Leighton, instead of adopting corrupt Roman notions regarding Venus such as Rubens embodied, has wisely reverted to the Greek idea of Aphrodite, a goddess worshipped, and by artists painted, as the perfection of female grace and beauty."Smith 1996, p. 146. According to Edgcumbe Staley:
See also
Aphrodite Urania Venus Anadyomene
References
Sources
Ash, Russell (1995). Lord Leighton. London: Pavilion Books Limited. p. 13. Gaunt, William (1975). Victorian Olympus. London: Sphere Books Ltd. pp. 78, 79, 175. Jones, Stephen, et al. (1996). Frederic Leighton, 1830–1896. Royal Academy of Arts, London: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. pp. 27–28, 39, 109, 119, 145, 170, 214. Rhys, Ernest (1900). Frederic Lord Leighton: An Illustrated Record of his Life and Work. London: George Bell & Sons. pp. 24–25, 110, 124, 143. Smith, Alison (1996). The Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality, and Art. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 145–46. Staley, Edgcumbe (1906). Lord Leighton of Stretton. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 73. "A Pastoral by Frederic Lord Leighton". The Victorian Web. 2 December 2004. Accessed 2 July 2022.