Cupid and Psyche

The portrait of Cupid and Psyche associated with Alphonse Legros and dated 1800 — though this date predates Legros's birth in 1837 — likely involves an attribution question that requires revision. If the date is correct, this is not by the Franco-British painter Alphonse Legros; if the attribution is correct, the date needs revision. Taking it as given, the subject of Cupid and Psyche was among the most beloved mythological themes of the Neoclassical period, drawing on Apuleius's ancient narrative of the mortal girl who became the bride of Love. The moment most often depicted — Psyche's forbidden glimpse of the sleeping Cupid — combined the erotic with the transgressive in ways that gave Neoclassical painters ideal material. The National Gallery's picture participates in the long tradition of this subject while its precise artistic identity remains uncertain.

The painting employs the smooth, idealized figure handling of the Neoclassical tradition, with both figures modeled in soft, rounded forms that privilege beauty and grace over naturalistic particularity. The setting is shadowed and intimate, appropriate to the nocturnal mystery of the myth. The palette is warm and sensuous, with the luminous skin tones of the two divine figures providing the primary chromatic interest.