Artwork Page for Cupid and Psyche

Details / Information for Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Psyche

1813
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Jacques-Louis David

(French, 1748–1825)
Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
gray wash and pen and black ink with white paint and traces of black chalk
Support
Laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 16.7 x 22.4 cm (6 9/16 x 8 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 2002.91
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

Scholars believe that this drawing was given by Jacques-Louis David to his pupil, the Comte de Forbin, to thank him for his continual devotion.

Description

This drawing belongs to a group of preparatory studies for Jacques-Louis David's painting Cupid and Psyche, also in the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection. Here, David integrated looser charcoal sketches into a finished work in which his composition was fully established. Only minor details, such as Cupid's facial expression, were ultimately changed. In layers of diluted gray wash and outlines of black ink, David evoked the precise appearance of his final canvas using monochromatic media.
A horizontally oriented black ink drawing with gray wash depicts a nude man and woman with light skin tone lying next to each other in bed. The man hangs one leg out of bed as if about to get up. Behind them the cloth of a bed canopy partially covers the landscape visible through the open window. The couple drape their arms across each other, the man smiling at us and the woman with her eyes closed. A quiver with arrows hangs off the bed under the man's right hand, a bow on the floor.

Cupid and Psyche

1813

Jacques-Louis David

(French, 1748–1825)
France, 19th century

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