Hymn to Venus

c. 1760–65

Hymn to Venus, c. 1760–65. Louis Felix de la Rue (French, 1731–1765). Pen and brown ink over red chalk (?) on antique laid paper; sheet: 38.8 x 44.2 cm (15 1/4 x 17 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2019.253 Louis Félix de La Rue came from a family of artists and was best known for creating designs for decorative arts, such as ceramics. This sheet—which features putti and bacchantes, the artist’s preferred subjects—likely served such a purpose, given its allover composition and focus on patterning and symmetry. The verso of this drawing is covered in the artist’s calculations and notations, suggesting that he reused a sheet found in his studio to create it.