The Birth of Venus is a comparable painting
This is another painting that rivals Cabanel's work The Birth of Venus at the Salon of 1863 from Paul Baudley. His paintings, instead of marking "The Birth of Venus", are titled Pearls and Waves, which he completed in 1862 and currently hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid. In this work, we see Venus not being supported by waves, but lying on a rock, with the foam of the sea as a background. She turned her head to us while looking back. In the Early Masters of Art Criticism and New Essays series, Kenyon Cox, the influential nineteenth American painter, writer, and art teacher at the New York Union of Art Students, praised the painting's writing:
"The most perfect fruit body painting of the 19th century"
He went on to emphasize in his essays on the "graceful posture", the plump and slender body of the young woman, and the pronounced shoulder sockets on her shoulders. He praised Baudley's work, calling it a "pure masterpiece."
Although Sharon had several paintings of Venus, the prevailing view at the time was that Cabanel's one was the best, see what was posted yesterday.