Judgment of Paris (1948)

Oil on canvas, 40 x 50 inches, signed lower right Exhibited: Painting in the United States, 1948, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, October 14-December 12, 1948, catalogue #38, illustrated Louis Bouché, Kraushaar Galleries, March -April 2, 1949, cat. #14 39th Annual Exhibition, Art Assoc. of Newport, RI, 1950, cat. #13 Philadelphia Art Alliance, PA, 1950 Louis Bouché, Des Moines Art Center, IA, 1952, cat. #28, illustrated Art Students League, NY, 1953 National Academy of Design, NY, 1958 Louis Bouché, Staten Island Museum, NY, 1960, catalogue #11 Century Club, NY, 1960 Southern Vermont Art Center, 1961 Suffolk Museum, NY, 1962 Albany Institute of History and Art, NY, 1963 American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY, 1970 Artists of Kraushaar Galleries, Union League Club, NY, 1986 Provenance: Kraushaar Galleries, NY Private collection, Brooklyn, NY, 1986-1998.

Louis Bouché was an “artist’s artist” whose career spanned almost fifty years. The artist’s most important paintings are for the most part located in museum collections, or private collections which are reluctant to part with them. Bouché synthesized several disparate trends of twentieth century art, such as Precisionism, Fauvism, and Surrealism, into his distinctive artistic vision. More than twenty major institutions purchased works by the artist during his lifetime, including the Art Students League, the Butler Institute of Art, the Cranbrook Academy, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum, the Parrish Art Museum, the Phillips Collection, the Pennsylvania Academy, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum, the Wichita Museum, and the Worcester Art Museum.

Our painting is one of Bouche's most important. The subject of the work, the Judgment of Paris, is played out in a modern day setting - Bouche's New York studio. The artist utilizes his brother, a favorite model and subject in many of his paintings, as Paris, the youngest son of Priam, King of Troy. Paris holds out the golden apple inscribed "For the Fairest" to Helen of Troy (represented by the full-length mannequin second from left), in lieu of the three half-length mannequins that represent Juno, Minerva and Venus, all claimants to the golden apple. The seduction of Helen, husband of Menelaus, King of Sparta, by Paris started the Trojan War which ended with the destruction of Troy and Paris' own death.

The work survives in excellent condition, in an original frame, with numerous exhibition labels verso.