– Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) is amongst the most famous artists in the world. As a figurative painter he was a major influence on the impressionist movement. Renoir was the foremost artist in terms of painting women. His sculptures bear witness to a substantial Greco-Roman heritage. Even so, the curvaceous, beautiful female figures have more in common with Renoir's paintings of bathing women than goddesses of the classical age.

Venus Victrix – Venus the Conqueror – depicts the goddess of love who has vanquished her competitors, the deities Minerva and Juno in a beauty contest. Paris, a man of human descent, acted as the judge. Venus holds the golden apple, the proof of her victory, in her hand. Paris chose Venus, as she had pledged to reward him with Helen, the most beautiful woman on Earth. Venus' promise to Paris was to become a cause for the Trojan War.

The Ekeberg Park has yet another Renoir sculpture, La grande Laveuse.

Venus Victrix, 1914-1916.

Bronze, 180 cm.