Jacques-Louis DavidFrankrig, 1748–1825Cupid and Psyche
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About the painting
Love and Psyche or Cupid and Psyche is an 1817 painting by Jacques-Louis David, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. It shows Cupid and Psyche. It was produced during David's exile in Brussels, for the patron and collector Gian Battista Sommariva. On its first exhibition at the museum in Brussels, it surprised viewers with its realist treatment of the figure of Cupid. Critics generally saw the painting's unconventional style and realistic depiction of Cupid as proof of David's decline while in exile, but art historians have come to see the work as a deliberate departure from traditional methods of representing mythological figures.
In the museum's words
David used the story of Cupid and Psyche to explore the conflict between idealized love and physical reality. Cupid, lover of the beautiful mortal Psyche, visited her nightly on the condition that she not know his identity. Cupid was usually depicted as an ideal adolescent, but here David presents him as an ungainly teenager smirking at his sexual conquest. David took inspiration from a number of ancient texts, including an obscure, recently published Greek poem by Moschus that describes Cupid as a mean-spirited brat with flashing eyes and curly hair.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Oplysninger
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- 1962.37
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Udstillet · 201 Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture
The Cleveland Museum of Art · 28. sep. 2026 — nu · Kontrolleret
Udstillet · 201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture
The Cleveland Museum of Art · 19. aug. 2026 — 28. sep. 2026 · Kontrolleret
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- The Cleveland Museum of Art: the museum's own open data · hentet for 7 dage siden
- Billede: The Cleveland Museum of Art — Museum open access
Imens i livet hos Jacques-Louis David
Hele livet1815
Flees to Switzerland after Waterloo
After Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo and the Bourbon restoration he was forced to flee to Switzerland; in August of the same year he returned to France.
1815
Napoleon visits David during the Hundred Days
During the Hundred Days Napoleon visited the painter and awarded him the commander’s cross of the Legion of Honour.
1816
Exile: moves to Brussels
Exiled from France for his part in the king’s execution, despite the intercession of the police minister Élie Decazes, he settled in Brussels, where he lived for the rest of his life.
1816–1825
The Brussels years: pupils and smaller works
He trained and influenced Brussels artists such as François-Joseph Navez and Ignace Brice, painted “Cupid and Psyche,” smaller mythological scenes, portraits of Brussels citizens and Napoleonic émigrés, and, towards the end of his life, a portrait of his old friend Abbé Sieyès.
