Woman Lying (Psyche ?)

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Basic information

ID: Ж-864
Author: Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Name: Woman Lying (Psyche ?)
Date of creation: 18th c.
Country: France
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 37 x 16

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: mythological painting
Plot: The Myth of Psyche
Provenance: Received from the Lubomirski Museum
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Artist's lifetime: 1725–1805
Country: France
Biography: Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) was an 18th-century French artist born in the city of Tournus. He gained his artistic skills in the workshop of the painter Charles Grandon in Lyon, and then refined his craft at the Paris Academy. Greuze's first success came after publishing the moralising painting "A Father Reading the Bible to His Family". In 1755, he began exhibiting his works at the Paris Salon. Later he worked in Rome, Florence, and Naples. Greuze was a sympathiser of French Rococo art. He explored genre scenes and portraiture. His generation knew him for his moralising genre paintings, but works in this movement were theatrical and hollow, only presenting melodramas aimed to appeal to buyers. Sometimes the artist took suggestions far from moralising and sentimentality from the models themselves. This manifested in the paintings that blurred the boundaries between genres, such as portraits in interiors and genre scenes. At the same time, he created erotic paintings. During the French Revolution, Greuze lost most of his property and earned a living in Paris by giving drawing lessons. Jean-Baptiste Greuze died on March 21, 1805. He spent his last years in a cold flat in the Louvre, where he was placed as a veteran along with other elderly artists.

Object description

The artist depicts Psyche lying on fur against a background of nature. In front of her is a dove with an arrow in its side. Behind her on a tree is a quiver with arrows. Psyche was a beautiful and tender soul who longed to find her lost love. She married the god Amor against the will of his mother, the goddess Venus. The goddess allowed her son to marry Psyche on the condition that she would never see him in the light. Psyche disobeyed: one night, she lit a lamp and saw the beautiful face of the young god. She was so enamoured by his beauty that she did not notice a hot drop of oil falling on Amor's delicate skin. Then the god disappeared. To bring him back, Psyche had to go through numerous trials. It was only after overcoming them and enduring great suffering that she found her beloved.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Woman Lying (Psyche ?)

Other