The Rape of Europa

Private collection

mythological

The painter treated this subject on several occasions. The present work was a preparatory oil sketch for a tapestry cartoon for the series Amours des Dieux, commissioned by the king as a gift for the marquis de Marigny. The tapestries were woven at the Gobelins manufactory, but Pierre's cartoon, formerly in the Musée d'Arras, was destroyed in World War I.

About the Artist

Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre

1714 – 1789

French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and administrator. Although he painted a number of rustic genre scenes and was an occasional designer of vases and picture frames, he was principally active as a painter of large-scale history and religious works. In this aspect of his output he forms a link in the 18th-century tradition of French history painting that runs from Jean Jouvenet to the Neo-classicism of Jacques-Louis David. He became academician in 1742, director of the Académie in 1778. He was First Painter to the Duke of Orléans, then to the King in 1770, replacing Boucher. He was director of the Gobelins, the Musée des Gobelins has many tapestries made after his cartoons.

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