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| Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier Reading of Voltaire's Orphelin de la Chine in the Salon of Mme. Geoffrin in 1755 1812 oil on canvas Châteaux de Malmaison |
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| François Boucher The Birth of Venus ca. 1765 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| François Boucher Diana after the Hunt 1745 oil on canvas Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris |
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| François Boucher Diana after the Hunt (detail) 1745 oil on canvas Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Pierrot 1718 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Pierrot (detail) 1718 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Pierrot (detail) 1718 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jean-Honoré Fragonard Presumed Portrait of Louis-François Prault as Personification of Inspiration ca. 1760-70 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jean-Honoré Fragonard Presumed Portrait of Louis-François Prault as Personification of Inspiration (detail) ca. 1760-70 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Portrait of Pierre Sériziat 1795 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
The Constructed Space
Meanwhile surely there must be something to say,
Maybe not suitable but at least happy
In a sense here between us two whoever
We are. Anyhow here we are and never
Before have we two faced each other who face
Each other now across this abstract scene
Stretching between us. This is a public place
Achieved against subjective odds and then
Mainly an obstacle to what I mean.
It is like that, remember. It is like that
Very often at the beginning till we are met
By some intention risen up out of nothing.
And even then we know what we are saying
Only when it is said and fixed and dead.
Or maybe, surely, of course we never know
What we have said, what lonely meanings are read
Into the space we make. And yet I say
This silence here for in it I might hear you.
I say this silence or, better, construct this space
So that somehow something may move across
The caught habits of language to you and me.
From where we are it is not us we see
And times are hastening yet, disguise is mortal.
The times continually disclose our home.
Here in the present tense disguise is mortal.
The trying times are hastening. Yet here I am
More truly now this abstract act become.
– W.S. Graham (1958)
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| François-Hubert Drouais Portrait of sculptor Robert le Lorrain 1730 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Adélaïde Labille-Guiard Portrait of Madame Adélaïde (daughter of Louis XV) ca. 1787 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort ca. 1730 oil on canvas Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Portrait of painter Jean-Baptiste Forest before 1704 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Le Chevalier de Chateaubourg (Charles-Joseph de la Celle) Portrait of Prince Anton Radziwill 1797 gouache on ivory Musée du Louvre |