''Diana Bathing'' or ''Diana Getting out of her Bath'' () is an oil-on-canvas painting by French artist

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

, created in 1742. It depicts the Roman goddess

Diana Diana most commonly refers to: * Diana (name), given name (including a list of people with the name) * Diana (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals; later associated with the Moon * Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997), ...

, with a nymph as her companion. The painting was acquired in 1852 by the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Description

The painting depicts in the foreground the naked goddess Diana, having just come out from her bath, with a female companion. Diana is recognizable by the crown of pearls that she wears, with a crescent-shaped jewel, and is in the company of a nymph kneeling at her feet. The goddess is nude, sitting on silks that enhance her fair complexion and blonde hair; the nymph, to her right, and left of the canvas, has dark hair, and observes the legs of the goddess. The bright skin tones acquire reddish reflections, in contrast to the bluish green of the landscape. The fact that the naked woman represented is the goddess of hunting is evidenced by her attributes, such as the quiver with the arrows, the two hunting dogs, and some prey. Diana sits on a silk fabric that symbolizes luxury and contrasts with the rural hinterland. Among the hunted animals there are two doves – symbols of love – which were often an attribute of Venice. Boucher used a similar motif in his work representing '' Venus Consoling Love''. On the left there are two dogs, one drinks water from the pond where the goddess has just emerged, while the other turns his head.

Appropriations

In 1987, painter

Herman Braun-Vega Herman Braun-Vega (7 July 1933 in Lima — 2 April 2019 in Paris) was a Peruvian painter and artist. Although his work has always been figurative, it was at first (before 1970) close to abstraction. It experienced a decisive turning point when t ...

appropriated ''Diana getting out of her bath'' in his painting ''Diane des tropiques''. By adding two nude mixed-race women also emerging from the bath to the foreground in front of Diana and her nymph, Braun-Vega expresses the advent of a multiracial, multicultural world. He repeated the process in 1989 in his painting La danse (Boucher, Matisse), adding the crossbreeding of

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

's painting with that of Boucher.

References

{{Authority control 1742 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Paintings of Diana (mythology) Mythological paintings by François Boucher Paintings of dogs