Diana Bathing (1742), 57 x 73 cm, oil on canvas, held in the Louvre Museum. François Boucher (1703-1770) was one of the most representative painters of French 18th-century Rococo art. A distinguished student of Watteau, he was a versatile and prolific painter skilled at expressing pastoral scenes full of life's charm or captivating figures from beautiful myths. After this painting "Diana Bathing" was exhibited at the Salon, it was favored by Madame de Pompadour (Louis XV's mistress), and thus his paintings became the model for the style of Louis XV's reign.

This sensual work is clearly influenced by Italian painting; particularly the tender, smooth, and youthful vitality of the goddess's nude body are characteristic charms of Boucher's Venus paintings. Like the Impressionist painter Renoir, who favored this "Diana Bathing," he said: "After Fragonard, this is the first truly moving work that has stayed with me, like how we love our first lover." Someone provocatively told me that such paintings are not worth appreciating, but what can be done? Of course, Boucher was not merely a simple decorator; if so, it would not be a flaw. In fact, Boucher was the painter who best understood the female body, as he painted the buttocks and dimples of young girls so beautifully.