Venus S’elevant Au Dessus De La Mer 

Henri Fantin-Latour painted Venus Rising from the Sea with oils on canvas, sometime in the second half of the 19th century. Latour painted during a period of great debate about the direction of French art. On one side were the academic artists, who prized skill, tradition, and mythological subject matter. On the other side were the Impressionists who sought to capture the fleeting qualities of contemporary life in a rapidly changing world. Latour stood somewhere in the middle and made his name painting portraits, but he also produced imaginative works such as this. We might see his Venus as an attempt to engage with the past while forging a new path for French art. He avoids the clean lines of academic painting in favour of something more evocative. To better understand this, one could research the archives of the French Academy or read the writings of Baudelaire. It's important to remember that art is always the product of a particular time and place.