Venus and Mars Jean Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine

These paintings of Jean-Pierre Norblin, who worked in Warsaw from 1772 to 1804, each represent a mythological story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. They may have been part of a series once, and were painted at about the same time as the decoration of the Military Academy in the Polish capital, also by the French master. The compositions were based on engravings after the works of François Boucher, which illustrated the Paris edition of Ovid’s work in 1767-1771.
Norblin’s main patrons, members of the Czartoryski family, were great admirers of Boucher. They did not manage to acquire any of his works, but welcomed his distinctive stylistic features in the works of the artist they supported. The composition and the elegant, affected presentation of the Budapest paintings are also reminiscent of Boucher, while the rapid, fresh style of painting, particularly in the cloudbanks, shows the influence of another outstanding rococo master, Jean-Honoré Fragonard.