#cabanel

The Birth of Venus (1875)

Alexandre Cabanel (French, 1823-1889) and

The Birth Of Venus

At some point I realized there were different versions of it, credited to different people. I tracked down the best quality version of each.

left: A Beauty Holding a Bird by Louis-Emile Pinel de Grandchamp (1831–1894)

right: L'oiseau Chéri ('The Beloved Bird') by Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889)

The colours are different. In one version, her hand comes up higher above the window. Various details are different, including the pattern on the wall behind her. It’s impressive how well the hand, fabric, jewellery, and other details are emulated. But which is the original?

Cabanel is a more well-known artist generally. If you don’t recognize his name, you might still recognize many of his paintings, like The Birth of Venus or Nymph abducted by a faun. Grandchamp doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page — what a nobody! — but you can find his work in many places, and, though it doesn’t link to anything, his name is mentioned on Wikipedia’s list of Orientialist artists, meaning Western artists who did works with Arabic or Asian influence, as this work does appear to be.