Boris Lovet-Lorski studied architecture and sculpture at the Imperial Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and worked as an architect before emigrating in 1920 to the United States, where he became a significant contributor to the Art Deco movement. Art Deco was a style in architecture, art, and design that combined modern, often geometric forms with rich materials, fine craftsmanship, and a fusion of historical sources drawn from ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, and Persian cultures. Art Deco aspired to be a global and futuristic modern style that embraced utopian ideals and evinced a fundamental faith in technological and social progress. Lovet-Lorski’s larger-than-life "Venus," depicting the Roman mythological goddess of love and beauty, sacrifices anatomical accuracy in favor of the streamlined forms that characterize Art Deco. The figure’s tapering lower body rises to broad shoulders, folded winglike arms, and a tilted head, as if she is just rising upward from the ocean where she was born.