The Rape of Europa
by PIERRE, Jean-Baptiste-Marie, Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 43 x 42 cm
The painter treated this subject on several occasions. The present work was a preparatory oil sketch for a tapestry cartoon for the series Amours des Dieux, commissioned by the king as a gift for the marquis de Marigny. The tapestries were woven at the Gobelins manufactory, but Pierre’s cartoon, formerly in the Mus�e d’Arras, was destroyed in World War I.