The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche

1817
(French, 1748–1825)
Framed: 221 x 282 x 10 cm (87 x 111 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 184.2 x 241.6 cm (72 1/2 x 95 1/8 in.)

Did You Know?

Jacques-Louis David included two butterflies in this painting: one above the slumbering Psyche and the other on the base of the couple's bed frame.

Description

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.
  • 1839
    Giovanni Battista Comte de Sommariva [1760-1826], his sale February 18-23, 1839, sold to Dubois.
    1839
    (Dubois, Paris, France, February 18-23, 1839, lot 1)
    James Alexandre Comte de Pourtalès [1776-1855], Paris. France.
    1880
    Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, France, March 27, 1865 (lot 242), ff 1,450 sold to Madame de Furtado, 1880.
    1880-?
    Madame de Furtado [1821-1896], Paris, France
    M. Eisenschitz ? (See distinguishing marks label)
    Prince Murat by 1913. Princesse Murat. Murat sale, Palais Galliéra, Paris, France, March 2, 1961 (lot 140), ff 245,000.
    1962
    (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1962
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dibdin, Thomas Frognall, William Bulmer, William Nicol, R. H. Evans, Robert Triphook, and John Major. A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany. 1821. Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 309-310
    Blanc, Charles and Adolphe Narcisse Thibaudeau. Le trésor de la curiosité, tiré des catalogues de vente de tableaux, dessins, estampes, livres, marbres, bronzes, ivoires, terres cuites, vitraux, médailles, armes, precelaines, meubles, émaux, laques et autres objets d'art. Paris: Ve J. Renouard, 1857. Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 437
    Rosenthal, Léon. Louis David. Paris: Librairie de l'art ancien et moderne, 1904. Mentioned: p. 139-140
    Musée du Petit Palais. Exposition David et ses élèves, 7 avril-9 juin, 1913, Palais des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris. Paris: Impr. G. Petit, 1913. Reproduced: no. 60
    Gallatin, James. A Great Peace Maker; The Diary of James Gallatin, Secretary to Albert Gallatin, 1813-1827. New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons, 1930. Mentioned: p. 64; Reproduced: p. 67
    Cantinelli, R. Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825. Paris: Editions G. van Oest, 1930. Reproduced: no. 143
    Escholier, Raymond and Germaine Barnaud. Gros, ses amis et ses élèves. Paris: Petit Palais, 1936. Reproduced: p. 218
    Kolma, Klaus. David, son evolution et son style. Paris: P. Lejay, 1940. Mentioned: p. 94-95; Reproduced: p. 129, no. 149
    Maret, Jacques. David. Monaco: Documents d'Art, 1943 Mentioned: p. 16; Reproduced: p. 94
    Maurois, André and Françoise Gaston-Chérau. J.-L. David. Paris: Éditions du Dimanche, 1948. Reproduced: no. 36
    Florisoone, Michel. David: exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance. Paris: Éditions des Musées Nationaux, 1948. Reproduced: no. 72
    Galerie Charpentier. Figures nues d'écloe française; depuis les maîtres de Fontainebleau: Paris: 1953. Reproduced: p. 45
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” June 13, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Francis, Henry S. "Jacques Louis David 'Cupid and Psyche'." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. L (1963): 29-34. Reproduced: p. 34
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 164 archive.org
    Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1915-1965. November 4, 1965-January 2, 1966. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1966. Reproduced: no. 20
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 164 archive.org
    Council of Europe, Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Arts Council of Great Britain. The Age of Neo-Classicism (catalogue of exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and the V&A Museum). London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1972. Reproduced: no. 71
    Verbraeken, René. Jacques-Louis David jugé par ses contemporains et par la postérité. Suivi de la liste des tableaux dont l'authenticité est garantie par les écrits de l'artiste, des documents de son époque, ou par leur appartenance à ses descendants. Paris: L. Laget, 1973. Mentioned: p. 29,105-106,184; Reproduced: p. 186, pl. 65
    Praz, Mario. Gusto neoclassico. Milan: Rizzoli, 1974. Mentioned: p. 18, 123; Reproduced: p. 255, pl. 27
    Heim Gallery. Exhibition of French Drawings: Neo-Classicism. London: Heim Gallery, 1975. Reproduced: no. 26
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 202 archive.org
    Borowitz, Helen O. "The Man Who Wrote to David." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 8 (1980): 256-74. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 263-264 www.jstor.org
    Lawrence, Mary. Lovers: 100 Works of Art Celebrating Romantic Love, with Commentaries by the Distinguished and the Great. New York, NY: A & W Publishers, 1982. Mentioned: p. 144-145; Reproduced: p. 145
    Louise d'Argencourt, Roger Diederen, Alisa Luxenberg, Patrick Noon, William H. Robinson, Ann Tzeutschler Lurie. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P:194-202, Vol. I, no. 72
    Laveissière, Sylvain and Philippe Bordes. Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: actes du colloque organisé au Musée du Louvre par le Service culturel, le 17 novembre 1997. Paris: Documentation française, 2001. Reproduced: fig. 19
    May, Sally Ruth. Knockouts: a pocket guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: no. 44, p. 46 - 47
    Cavicchioli, Sonia. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche: An Illustrated History. New York, NY: George Braziller, 2002. Reproduced: p. 209, fig.148
    Baur, Eva Gesine. Meisterwerke der erotischen Kunst. Cologne: Dumont, 2002. Reproduced: p. 73, fig.4
    Greer, Germainer. The Beautiful Boy. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2003. Reproduced: p. 84
    Delaporte, François. Anatomie des passions. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2003. Reproduced: pl. 9
    Pinelli, Antonio. David. Milan: 5 Continents, 2004. Reproduced: pl. 46
    Bordes, Philippe. Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. Mentioned: p. 231-232; Reproduced: no. 32
    Musée du Louvre. Rūvuru Bijutsukan ten: 19-seiki Furansu kaiga : shin koten shugi kara roman shugi e (Louvre: chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture française du XIXème siècle dans les collections du Louvre). Tokyo: Nihon Terebi Hōsōmō, 2005. Reproduced: p. 42
    Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: Frick Collection, 2006. Mentioned: p. 64-69; no. 13
    Holm, Christiane. Amor und Psyche: die Erfindung eines Mythos in Kunst, Wissenschaft und Alltagskultur (1765-1840). Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2006. Mentioned: p. 20-21,115-116,192-194,251,159
    Carrier, David. Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 72, fig.11
    Johnson, Dorothy. Jacques-Louis David: New Perspectives. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006. Reproduced: p. 30, pl. 14
    Lampe, Issa. Painting History Ex Patria: Empire, Exile and Memory in the Late Narrative Paintings of Jacques-Louis David (1817-1824). Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2006. Reproduced: p. 265, fig. 4
    Channing, Laurence, "Personal and Professional", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 10, December 2006 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 archive.org
    Ledbury, Mark. David After David: Essays on the Later Work. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. Reproduced: fig. 4
    Allard, Sébastien and Marie-Claude Chaudonneret. Le suicide de Gros: les peintres de l'Empire et la génération romantique. Paris: Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2010. Reproduced: p. 65
    Johnson, Dorothy. David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 5
    Allard, Sébastien, Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen, and Emmanuel Pernoud. L'enfant dans la peinture. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011. Mentioned: p. 248-249; Reproduced: p. 249
    Leniaud, Jean-Michel. Napoléon et les arts. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2012. Reproduced: p. 402
    Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland:Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Scala Publishers, 2012. Reproduced: p. 226-227
    Pomarède, Vincent, Valeria Merlini, and Daniela Storti. Cupid and Psyche. Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbettino Editore, 2012. Reproduced: p. 39, fig. 14
    Cogeval, Guy. Masculin masculin: l'homme nu dans l'art de 1800 à nos jours. Paris: Musée d'Orsay, 2013. Reproduced: p. 15, fig. 5
    Fried, Michael. Another Light: Jacques-Louis David to Thomas Demand. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. Reproduced: p. 27
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 287
    Langer, Laurent. "James de Pourtales. Collectionneur de tableaux contemporains." In Kunst & Karriere: ein Kaleidoskop des Kunstbetriebs. Ed. by Bätschmann, Oskar, and Regula Krähenbühl, 139-154. Zürich: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, 2015. Reproduced: p. 142, fig. 2
    LeValley, Paul. Art Follows Nature: A Worldwide History of the Nude.
    [Kissimmee, FL] : [Paul LeValley]; 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 157
    Guichard, Charlotte. La griffe du peintre: la valeur de l'art (1730-1820). Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2018. Reproduced and mentioned: p. 250-251, fig.75
    Arendsee, M. and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p. 77
    David, Jacques Louis, and Perrin Stein. Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman. 2022, 245. Mentioned and reproduced, p. 245, fig. 140.
    Décimo, Marc. Étant Donné Marcel Duchamp: Palimpseste d'Une Oeuvre. Dijon: Les Presses du réel, 2022. Reproduced: P. 207, fig. 46
  • Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007).
    Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007).
    CMA @ Oberlin (first rotation). Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 31-April 3, 2006).
    Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (February 1-April 24, 2005); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 5-September 5, 2005).
    Au profit des hospices de Sainte-Gudule et des Ursulines. Musée Royal de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium (1817). (See Wildenstein and Wildenstein 1973).
    The Age of Neoclassicism. Arts Council of Great Britain (organizer) (September 7-November 19, 1972).
    Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (November 4, 1965-January 2, 1966).
    Neo-classicism: Style and Motif. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).
    City Hall, Ghent, Belgium (1817). (According to Dowd 1956).
    David: Exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance. Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, France (June-September, 1948).
    Au profit des Grecs. Galerie Lebrun, Paris, France (1826). (According to David, exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, France (1948).
    Gros, ses amis, ses élèves. Petit Palais, Paris, France (1936).
  • {{cite web|title=Cupid and Psyche|url=false|author=Jacques-Louis David|year=1817|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1962.37