id: 138464 accession number: 1962.37 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.37 updated: 2024-04-12 11:21:26.071000 Cupid and Psyche, 1817. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). Oil on canvas; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1962.37 title: Cupid and Psyche title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1817 creation date earliest: 1817 creation date latest: 1817 current location: 201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on canvas department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825) - artist The founder and leading painter of the neoclassical movement in France, Jacques-Louis David was born in Paris to a prosperous family of artists and archi-tects. In 1766 he entered the Académie Royale as the pupil of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). After several failed attempts, David won the Prix de Rome in 1774. The following year he left for Italy, where he studied antique art and envisioned replacing the frivolity of the rococo with an art of grandeur, simplicity, and moral virtue. After returning to Paris in 1780, he established his reputa-tion with three spectacular successes at the Salon: The Oath of the Horatii (1785, Musée du Louvre, Paris), The Death of Socrates (1787, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and The Lictors Bring-ing Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (1789, Musée du Louvre, Paris). Widely interpreted as moral parables for contemporary political events, these archetypes of neoclassical aesthetics set the standard for academic painting of the next century. In the 1790s David joined the radical Jacobin Club and played an active role in the French Revolution. He allied himself with Robespierre, served a short term as president of the Convention, and voted for the execution of Louis XVI. He also placed his artistic talents at the service of the Revolution by creating paintings that glorified its martyrs and by organizing public festivals that celebrated the new political order. As the most prominent artist in the revolutionary ranks, he led the attack against the Académie Royale that culminated in its abolish-ment in 1793. When the excesses of the Reign of Terror precipitated the fall of Robespierre in 1794, David was imprison-ed but spared execution. Authorities released him the following year due to ill health. Around 1798 David developed a new alliance with the brilliant young general of the Directory, Napoléon Bonaparte. David's painting The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799, Musée du Louvre, Paris) coalesced perfectly with Napoleonic propaganda urging national reconciliation. After the coup d'état of 1799, Napoléon was named first consul and began supplying David with important commissions. Upon Napoléon's coronation in 1804, David was appointed first painter to the emperor. David's monumental painting The Coronation of Napoléon, or Le Sacre (1805-7, Musée du Louvre, Paris), introduced a less spartan, more colorful and emotive style. However, as seen in his life-size portrait Napoléon in His Study (1812, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), David increasingly searched to balance this new heroic-romanticism with an exacting realism. In 1816, following Napoléon's defeat at Waterloo and the restoration of the monarchy, David went into exile in Belgium. He spent the last nine years of his life in Brussels, painting mostly mythological subjects and portraits. David died of a stroke in 1825 and was denied burial in France. --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed in yellow in arm of the couch: L. David 1817 Bruxelles translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review - 1962 opening date: 1962-10-24T04:00:00 Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962). title: Neo-classicism: Style and Motif opening date: 1964-09-23T04:00:00 Neo-classicism: Style and Motif. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer). title: Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition opening date: 1965-11-04T05:00:00 Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (November 4, 1965-January 2, 1966). title: The Age of Neoclassicism opening date: 1972-09-07T04:00:00 The Age of Neoclassicism. Arts Council of Great Britain (organizer) (September 7-November 19, 1972). title: Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile opening date: 2005-02-01T00:00:00 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). title: CMA @ Oberlin (first rotation) opening date: 2006-01-31T00:00:00 CMA @ Oberlin (first rotation). Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 31-April 3, 2006). title: Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-11-08T00:00:00 Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007). title: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2007-03-29T00:00:00 Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'City Hall, Ghent, Belgium (1817). (According to Dowd 1956).', 'opening_date': '1956-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Au profit des hospices de Sainte-Gudule et des Ursulines. Musée Royal de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium (1817). (See Wildenstein and Wildenstein 1973).', 'opening_date': '1973-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Au profit des Grecs. Galerie Lebrun, Paris, France (1826). (According to David, exh. cat., Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, France (1948).', 'opening_date': '1948-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Gros, ses amis, ses élèves. Petit Palais, Paris, France (1936).', 'opening_date': '1936-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': "David: Exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance. Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, France (June-September, 1948).", 'opening_date': '1948-06-01T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE Giovanni Battista Comte de Sommariva [1760-1826], his sale February 18-23, 1839, sold to Dubois. date: 1839 footnotes: citations: (Dubois, Paris, France, February 18-23, 1839, lot 1) date: 1839 footnotes: citations: James Alexandre Comte de Pourtalès [1776-1855], Paris. France. date: footnotes: citations: Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, France, March 27, 1865 (lot 242), ff 1,450 sold to Madame de Furtado, 1880. date: 1880 footnotes: citations: Madame de Furtado [1821-1896], Paris, France date: 1880-? footnotes: citations: M. Eisenschitz ? (See distinguishing marks label) date: footnotes: citations: Prince Murat by 1913. Princesse Murat. Murat sale, Palais Galliéra, Paris, France, March 2, 1961 (lot 140), ff 245,000. date: footnotes: citations: (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1962 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1962 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS id: 162396 Cupid and Psyche, 1813. Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825). Gray wash and pen and black ink with white paint and traces of black chalk ; sheet: 16.7 x 22.4 cm (6 9/16 x 8 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 2002.91 relationship: based on --- CITATIONS page number: url: 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. page number: Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 309-310 url: 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. page number: Mentioned: vol. 2, p. 437 url: Rosenthal, Léon. Louis David. Paris: Librairie de l'art ancien et moderne, 1904. page number: Mentioned: p. 139-140 url: 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. page number: Reproduced: no. 60 url: 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. page number: Mentioned: p. 64; Reproduced: p. 67 url: Cantinelli, R. Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825. Paris: Editions G. van Oest, 1930. page number: Reproduced: no. 143 url: Escholier, Raymond and Germaine Barnaud. Gros, ses amis et ses élèves. Paris: Petit Palais, 1936. page number: Reproduced: p. 218 url: Kolma, Klaus. David, son evolution et son style. Paris: P. Lejay, 1940. page number: Mentioned: p. 94-95; Reproduced: p. 129, no. 149 url: Maret, Jacques. David. Monaco: Documents d'Art, 1943 page number: Mentioned: p. 16; Reproduced: p. 94 url: Maurois, André and Françoise Gaston-Chérau. J.-L. David. Paris: Éditions du Dimanche, 1948. page number: Reproduced: no. 36 url: Florisoone, Michel. David: exposition en l'honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance. Paris: Éditions des Musées Nationaux, 1948. page number: Reproduced: no. 72 url: Galerie Charpentier. Figures nues d'écloe française; depuis les maîtres de Fontainebleau: Paris: 1953. page number: Reproduced: p. 45 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” June 13, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr0964 Francis, Henry S. "Jacques Louis David 'Cupid and Psyche'." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. L (1963): 29-34. page number: Reproduced: p. 34 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 164 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n188 Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1915-1965. November 4, 1965-January 2, 1966. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1966. page number: Reproduced: no. 20 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 164 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n188 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. page number: Reproduced: no. 71 url: 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. page number: Mentioned: p. 29,105-106,184; Reproduced: p. 186, pl. 65 url: Praz, Mario. Gusto neoclassico. Milan: Rizzoli, 1974. page number: Mentioned: p. 18, 123; Reproduced: p. 255, pl. 27 url: Heim Gallery. Exhibition of French Drawings: Neo-Classicism. London: Heim Gallery, 1975. page number: Reproduced: no. 26 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 202 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n222 Borowitz, Helen O. "The Man Who Wrote to David." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 8 (1980): 256-74. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 263-264 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159691 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. page number: Mentioned: p. 144-145; Reproduced: p. 145 url: 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. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P:194-202, Vol. I, no. 72 url: 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. page number: Reproduced: fig. 19 url: May, Sally Ruth. Knockouts: a pocket guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Reproduced: no. 44, p. 46 - 47 url: Cavicchioli, Sonia. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche: An Illustrated History. New York, NY: George Braziller, 2002. page number: Reproduced: p. 209, fig.148 url: Baur, Eva Gesine. Meisterwerke der erotischen Kunst. Cologne: Dumont, 2002. page number: Reproduced: p. 73, fig.4 url: Greer, Germainer. The Beautiful Boy. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2003. page number: Reproduced: p. 84 url: Delaporte, François. Anatomie des passions. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2003. page number: Reproduced: pl. 9 url: Pinelli, Antonio. David. Milan: 5 Continents, 2004. page number: Reproduced: pl. 46 url: Bordes, Philippe. Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. page number: Mentioned: p. 231-232; Reproduced: no. 32 url: 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. page number: Reproduced: p. 42 url: Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: Frick Collection, 2006. page number: Mentioned: p. 64-69; no. 13 url: Holm, Christiane. Amor und Psyche: die Erfindung eines Mythos in Kunst, Wissenschaft und Alltagskultur (1765-1840). Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2006. page number: Mentioned: p. 20-21,115-116,192-194,251,159 url: Carrier, David. Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 72, fig.11 url: Johnson, Dorothy. Jacques-Louis David: New Perspectives. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 30, pl. 14 url: 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. page number: Reproduced: p. 265, fig. 4 url: Channing, Laurence, "Personal and Professional", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 10, December 2006 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2006-10/page/4 Ledbury, Mark. David After David: Essays on the Later Work. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007. page number: Reproduced: fig. 4 url: Allard, Sébastien and Marie-Claude Chaudonneret. Le suicide de Gros: les peintres de l'Empire et la génération romantique. Paris: Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2010. page number: Reproduced: p. 65 url: Johnson, Dorothy. David to Delacroix: The Rise of Romantic Mythology. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. page number: Reproduced: p. 14, fig. 5 url: Allard, Sébastien, Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen, and Emmanuel Pernoud. L'enfant dans la peinture. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2011. page number: Mentioned: p. 248-249; Reproduced: p. 249 url: Leniaud, Jean-Michel. Napoléon et les arts. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2012. page number: Reproduced: p. 402 url: Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland:Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Scala Publishers, 2012. page number: Reproduced: p. 226-227 url: Pomarède, Vincent, Valeria Merlini, and Daniela Storti. Cupid and Psyche. Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbettino Editore, 2012. page number: Reproduced: p. 39, fig. 14 url: Cogeval, Guy. Masculin masculin: l'homme nu dans l'art de 1800 à nos jours. Paris: Musée d'Orsay, 2013. page number: Reproduced: p. 15, fig. 5 url: Fried, Michael. Another Light: Jacques-Louis David to Thomas Demand. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. page number: Reproduced: p. 27 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 287 url: 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. page number: Reproduced: p. 142, fig. 2 url: LeValley, Paul. Art Follows Nature: A Worldwide History of the Nude.
[Kissimmee, FL] : [Paul LeValley]; 2016. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 157 url: Guichard, Charlotte. La griffe du peintre: la valeur de l'art (1730-1820). Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2018. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: p. 250-251, fig.75 url: 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. page number: Mentioned: p. 77 url: David, Jacques Louis, and Perrin Stein. Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman. 2022, 245. page number: Mentioned and reproduced, p. 245, fig. 140. url: Décimo, Marc. Étant Donné Marcel Duchamp: Palimpseste d'Une Oeuvre. Dijon: Les Presses du réel, 2022. page number: Reproduced: P. 207, fig. 46 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.37/1962.37_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.37/1962.37_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1962.37/1962.37_full.tif