The Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Painting: oil on canvas, dimensions 300 cm x 218 cm (120 in x 86 in) currently located at Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

The Birth of Venus or La Naissance de Vénus (1879) is one of the most famous paintings by the 19th century French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, depicting not the actual birth of Venus from the sea, but the transportation of Venus in a shell (a visual metaphor for the vulva) from the sea to Paphos in Cyprus.