The Woman in the Waves

Between 1864 and 1868 Courbet undertook a series of paintings of the female nude. He could not have failed to witness the triumph of Alexandre Cabanels Birth of Venus (Musée dOrsay, Paris) at the Salon of 1863, along with the popularity of similar representations by Cabanels fellow academicians. Here, Courbet evokes the myth of Venus, the goddess born of the sea, but slyly subverts convention by depicting the model’s underarm hair—an element of realism amplified by the almost palpable quality of her flesh.