Noel Nicolas Coypel

Noël-Nicolas Coypel was the youngest painter of the Coypel family, and his mythological scenes are among the most graceful French paintings of the early Rococo. His goddesses and nymphs have soft pale skin, pink and blue draperies and light, airy settings.

He was born in Paris in 1690, the son of Noël Coypel and half-brother of Antoine Coypel, who was nearly thirty years older. He was received into the Académie royale in 1720 and became a professor there in 1733. He painted religious works for Paris churches, including a ceiling for the chapel of the Virgin at Saint-Sauveur, and works for Versailles. He is best known today for his mythologies, including The Rape of Europa of 1727, painted for a royal competition.

In The Bath of Diana or Birth of Venus, look at the pale colours and the easy, floating arrangement of the figures. He died in Paris in 1734.