This is my favorite masterpiece from Bouguereau. The artist was born in the same era with impressionism, in which time impressionism was gradually replacing classicism. Actually I regard Bouguereau as the most brilliant in classical painting.
In this painting, we see a main character(Venus) in the middle, and lots of people around her. Venus is standing in a relaxed "S" shape, holding up her hair. Her lines are gentle and slick, which is almost impossible to appear in a real model. The proportion of her body is also awesome yet unreal. It is the fierce brush from the artist to modify a real life photo into an excellent figure. The warm light gives Venus a bright, slender outline on the left, while most part of her body was in a relatively dark area. The wonderful thing is, we still can see so many subtle changes in the dark area, even see some bold cold color on the skin. That makes the air look clear and transparent. The classical painters before Bouguereau all painted skin with yellow and red, nobody dared use the lilacy color in their works.Other characters standing, sitting, swimming, and flying around Venus with an "S" shape. This is a comforting, charming composition, which fit the theme very well. The picture is basically in warm color, but still, we can find several conspicuous saturated cold color. That prevents the whole picture from going too hot or too noisy. We can feel the beauty and peace from the artist.