The Birth of Venus Alexandre Cabanel

Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889) was one of the great masters of French Academic painting — Napoleon III’s favourite painter and a towering figure of the Paris Salon. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome, he brought a technical perfection and sensuous beauty to classical and mythological subjects that made him the most celebrated painter of his era.

The Birth of Venus (1863) is his undisputed masterpiece. A goddess emerges from the sea, her body carried on the crest of a wave, surrounded by playful cupids. The painting caused a sensation at the Paris Salon of 1863 — the very same year Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe was rejected — and Napoleon III purchased it immediately for his personal collection. It is a work of breathtaking technical virtuosity: the luminous skin, the soft sea foam, the dreamlike atmosphere of myth made flesh.

Today it hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Now it can bring that same timeless beauty to your home.

• Museum-quality giclée print on premium photo paper
• Faithful color reproduction of the original oil painting
• Rich detail preserving Cabanel’s extraordinary technical mastery
• Ready to frame and display