River God

Carle Vanloo studied under his brother, Jean-Baptiste Vanloo. The paintings were acquired for the Royal Palace and are listed as Lake Mälaren and The Sea in the 1745-1747 inventory. But they had been shown at the Paris Salon already in 1740, there called A RIver and A Naiad. Other names given to copies of the works are Le Rhône and Le Saône. Possibly the inspiration for the figures came from Rubens’ Maria de’ Medici cycle in the Louvre.

Credit: Transferred 1865 Kongl. Museum