A young woman stands upright on the crest of a breaking wave, one hand touching her head and the other resting at her chest, her long auburn hair falling past her hips. Cupids float in a loose cloud at the upper left, one of them raising a golden apple, and a trail of pale mist curls up behind her. The open sea stretches to a low, dark headland under a pale blue sky. The subject is the birth of Venus.

Jean-Léon Gérôme painted this tall canvas, about 130 by 80 centimeters, in 1890, and signed it at the lower right. It is also known by the French titles Vénus sortant des eaux and L'Étoile, and it appears as no. 389 in the catalogue raisonné of his work. No museum record or published provenance exists for the picture.

It is in a private collection.