Hymn to Venus (c. 1760–65): Art, History and Details

Hymn to Venus (c. 1760–65) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Louis Felix de la Rue (French, 1731–1765).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Louis Félix de La Rue came from a family of artists and was best known for creating designs for decorative arts, such as ceramics. This sheet—which features putti and bacchantes, the artist’s preferred subjects—likely served such a purpose, given its allover composition and focus on patterning and symmetry.

Object facts

• Title: Hymn to Venus
• Date: c. 1760–65
• Creator attribution: Louis Felix de la Rue (French, 1731–1765)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Pen and brown ink over red chalk (?) on antique laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 38.8 x 44.2 cm (15 1/4 x 17 3/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2019.253

A detail from the museum

The verso of this drawing is covered in the artist’s calculations and notations, suggesting that he reused a sheet found in his studio to create it.

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.