Venus in Black Stockings 1: Im Boudoir by Károly Teuchert

Im Boudoir (1922) 

Back to the nineteen twenties for this painting by Hungarian painter Károly Teuchert (1886-1924),  It has been virtually impossible to find out anything about the artist, apart from the fact that he studied in Budapest and at the Academy of Fine arts in Munich. Is the leggy lady ddepicted in this painting dressing or undressing? She looks wistfully at her clothes but her pose doesn't indicate any discomfort with her state. Perhaps she is a woman who well knows the power of her body. This painting was sold in 2010 for nearly $4,500 but Teuchert nudes have gone for as much as $11,000.

Teuchert painted a number of nudes in the nineteen twenties. This second boudoir painting, from the same year, features a maid drying her mistress' foot while the lady admires herself in the mirror. There is all manor of gentle sensuality in this one.  The mistress gazes at her reflection with satisfaction while the maid regards her foot with, almost, adoration.

Here is a splendid rear view, with the lady caught in direct sunlight flooding the room.  Her face isn't visible as the painting is all about that illuminated bottom and back, as she lies in a seemingly rumpled bed.

Nude with cat (1926) 

This one was one of his last paintings, done in 1926, the year of his death. The girl sports the newly fashionable short hair of the period. There is no question of any  representation of furniture in this, just a neutral background to display her charms. Is it saying, is this girl's character like her black cat?  Watch out!

Odalisque Venus 1: by Francesco Michetti

Odalisque (1873)

Here is a Turkish-style odalisque (the lowest grade of girl in the harem) by Italian painter Francesco Paolo Michetti (1851-1929). The orientalist subject matter is unusual for the artist who specilaised in outdoor scenes.   Michetti originated in the Abruzzo region of Italy and after studying at the Academia in Naples moved to Paris to continue his studies, exhibiting at the 1872 Paris Salon.  

Self-portrait

In 1883 he bought an old convent building, back in Abruzzo, as his studio and home and took much of his inspiration from the local people and landscape.  He also exhibited in Milan, Naples, Berlin and at the first Venice Bienalle.  For the last twenty years of his life he lived as a virtual recluse and stopped exhibiting.

Franco-Irish Venus: Marie-Louise O' Murphy de Boisfaily by François Boucher

Marie-Louise O'Murphy(1752)

This is probably my favourite painting of all time and is believed to be a painting of Mary-Louise O'Murphy de Boisfaily by François Boucher (1703-1760).  A picture I fell in love with when I was about eleven (at the same time that I noticed that several girls in my class at school were really pretty).  She was the fifth daughter of an army officer of Irish extraction, Daniel O'Murphy de Boisfaily.  She was born in Rouen on October 21st 1737. After her father died her mother took her to Paris where the widow traded in second hand clothes whilst finding work for her daughters. Mary-Louise became a dancer at L'Opera and a model. Casanova knew her (she is mentioned in his diaries) and she may have been his mistress, briefly. Casanova certainly introduced her to Boucher who painted this picture of her in 1752 and also may have had an affair with her (33 year age difference not withstanding). It has been argued that the picture was produced as a direct invitation to Louis XV; demonstrating that she was available to be his mistress. Rather like leaving a photographic postcard of a girl in a phone box outside a Park Lane hotel. There was no issue about presenting a fourteen year old girl as a sexual object in France at the time. The age of consent was, after all, ten during this period and girls could get legally married at twelve.  However, Louis was very worried about contracting venereal diseases and tended to get only virgins procured for the royal bed.

Original life sketch of Marie Louise

Louis XV knew a fine piece when he saw it (he liked the painting too) and she quickly became one of his second tier mistresses and stayed so for two years. Louis had an official mistress, of course, Madame de Pompadour, who may have been happy at first for the king to entertain this plump little distraction as she was increasingly exhausted by Louis voracious sexual demands. Mary-Louise bore the king an illegitimate daughter, Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine (1754-1774), but she tried to oust Madame de Pompadour from top mistress spot and was soon kicked out of the court and married off to Comte de Beaufranchet, who must have been very cheered by this development, as Mary-Louise was still only 17. He didn't get to enjoy her for very long, though, as he was killed at the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, where Frederick the Great smashed a combined Franco-Austrian army. Mary-Louise subsequently had two more husbands, including one who was thirty years younger than her who she married at the age of 61! Although she was imprisoned for a time during the French Revolution she survived The Terror and died in 1814 at the age of 77. The painting now hangs in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. I was lucky enough to see it displayed in an exhibition in Berlin,some years ago (and purchased a very splendid mouse mat of the picture which is too precious to use). It is a comparatively small picture: about 24" by 29" and was just the sort of sized picture Boucher would turn out for the cabinets of his wealthy gentleman collectors.

Boucher also painted another version of the painting, which is in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, but it doesn't quite have the plump pliancy of the original.  I also saw this one in the Berlin exhibition. 

Victoire O'Murphy

There is another very similar picture (in the Louvre) which is believed to be Mary-Louise's older sister Victoire.

Miss Victoire O'Murphy in Turkish costume

This painting also exists in a clothed version, which is in a private collection, hence we only have a black and white scan from a fifty year old book in Triple P's library.

This version is an engraving by Gilles Demarteau and includes a cupid who seems very interested in Marie-Louise's nether regions.  It is believed that this is taken from another version of the  painting which is now lost. 

Boucher (1703-1770) was a prolific artist, producing over 10,000 drawings during his life, and at the time was criticised for churning out paintings for the money. A more telling criticism came from the philosopher Diderot who accused Boucher of "prostituting his own wife" as he had her pose for erotic pictures which he sold to collectors.  This drawing, of an almost identical pose is believed to be Boucher's wife.  This led to increasing notoriety and his art was criticised more and more towards the end of his life, as neo-classicism ousted his frothy, Rococo style.