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The Declaration of Love

ca. 1724
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 630
This celebrated painting and its nearby pendant, The Garter, exemplify a genre of painting known as tableaux de mode (paintings of fashionable society) established by de Troy. Rejecting religious or mythological subjects, artists represented the latest interior decoration, clothing, etiquette, and social mores. Here an amorous couple flirts beneath an image of Mars and Venus, relegated to wall decoration, while the eager dog hints none too subtly at the passions concealed behind their delicate gestures. In the 1720s, the meticulous rhyming of curves among picture frame, chair rail, and sofa was extremely in vogue, but in de Troy’s composition it also underscores the theme of physical union.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Declaration of Love
  • Artist: Jean François de Troy (French, Paris 1679–1752 Rome)
  • Date: ca. 1724
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 25 5/8 × 21 in. (65.1 × 53.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.141.21
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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Study of a Draped Figure, Jean François de Troy French, Red and white chalk, stumped, on blue prepared paper
Study of a Draped Figure
Jean François de Troy
ca. 1736–39
The Triumph of Mordecai, Jean François de Troy French, Oil on canvas
The Triumph of Mordecai
Jean François de Troy
ca. 1736
The Garter, Jean François de Troy French, Oil on canvas
The Garter
Jean François de Troy
1724
The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet, Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) French, Oil on canvas
The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)
ca. 1643
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond (1765–1788), Adélaïde Labille-Guiard French, Oil on canvas
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond (1765–1788)
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
1785

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