The wave and the pearl by Paul Baudry

Image: The wave and the pearl, by French painter Paul Baudry (Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry, 1828-1886).

The painting is a depiction of Venus, though not mentioned so in the title. The pearl (in fact different seashells) towards the right side or feet of Venus, is indicative of the Birth of Venus. Most artists who popularized the theme depicted a standing Venus, not a declining Venus as in this painting.

The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel

Image: ‘The Birth of Venus’ (Naissance de Venus), oil on canvas, 130 cm x 225 cm, 1863 painting by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), is located in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A second painting, slightly smaller version painted in 1875, is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, USA.

When exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1863, ‘The Birth of Venus’ greatly impressed Napoleon III, who purchased it for his personal collection. The famous art historian and curator Robert Rosenblum wrote of Cabanel's ‘The Birth of Venus’, "This Venus hovers somewhere between an ancient deity and a modern dream… The ambiguity of her eyes that seem to be closed but that a close look reveals that she is awake… A nude who could be asleep or awake is especially formidable for a male viewer."

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.

Detail from The Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Painting: Detail from oil painting ‘The Birth of Venus’ (1879) by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

The Birth of Venus, a painting of AD 1486 by Sandro Botticelli, depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the seashore. The painting, tempera on canvas (dimensions: 172.5 cm × 278.5 cm / 67.9 in × 109.6 in), is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Venus is a Roman goddess associated with love, beauty and fertility. Venus played a key role in Roman religious festivals and mythology. From third century BC, the Hellenization of Roman upper classes identified her as the equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
The Birth of Venus, now among the most familiar masterpieces of Florentine art, is the work of Sandro Botticelli (c 1445 - May 17, 1510), an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance period.