Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 'Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid', 1753

Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Room 35

About the work

Overview

This is an early work by Fragonard, which was presented to Louis XV at Versailles in 1753. It illustrates an episode from the classical story of Cupid and Psyche, retold in a book by Jean de La Fontaine. Having fallen in love with Psyche, Cupid only visited her at night, forbidding her to look at him. Here we see Psyche, dressed in white and waited upon by nymphs, welcoming her two sisters into Cupid’s palace where she shows them the gifts she has received. Provoked by envy – represented by an allegorical figure above them clutching snakes – the two sisters persuade Psyche to reveal Cupid’s identity and thereby destroy her happiness. It has been suggested that the figure of Psyche here may have been inspired by the King’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

The scene is filled with luxury items, flowers and jewels, but some of the original details are missing as the picture has been cut down.

In-depth

This painting illustrates an episode from the classical story of Cupid and Psyche. Having fallen in love with Psyche, Cupid only visited her at night, forbidding her to look at him. Here we see Psyche welcoming her two sisters into Cupid’s palace where she shows them the gifts she has received. Provoked by envy – represented by an allegorical figure above them who is clutching snakes – the two sisters persuade Psyche to reveal Cupid’s identity and thereby destroy her happiness.

The story was originally told by Apuleius (c.124–c.170 AD) in Book V: 7–10 of his Latin prose work Metamorphoses (also known as The Golden Ass). However, Fragonard’s painting – particularly the abundance of figures and objects – owes more to Jean de La Fontaine’s Les Amours de Psiché et Cupidon, which was first published in 1669 and frequently republished.

Some detail is now missing as the canvas has been cut down – it has lost around 26 cm from the top and around 35 cm on the left hand side. In what would originally have been the middle of the picture, the two sisters stand flanked by the giant columns of Cupid’s palace. On the right, Psyche, swathed in white, reclines as she is attended to by two nymphs, one of whom dresses her hair. Three more nymphs are on the left. Two are holding the fabrics that Psyche is showing to her sisters. Part of another (sixth) nymph can just be glimpsed at the very left edge of the picture. Fragonard has also filled the scene with an array of luxury items, including golden vases and a perfume burner, and Cupid’s full quiver lies on the ground. Flowers and jewels are scattered throughout. Jewellery, especially, was central to La Fontaine’s narrative, and it is possible that the piles of jewels he describes were originally in the bottom left corner of the picture before the canvas was cut down.

This is an early work by Fragonard, painted the year he was admitted as a pupil to the Ecole royale des élèves protégés, then under the direction of Carle Vanloo. At that time pupils at the school were required to produce a work to show to the King at Versailles. This painting was among those presented in 1753. It was an immediate success, but later passed into obscurity when it was also attributed to Vanloo. Before he arrived at the school, Fragonard studied with Boucher during 1752–3 and, perhaps not surprisingly, the picture shows the influence of the older painter. Many of its details derive from sketches made by Boucher in 1737 for a tapestry illustrating the same story. However, Fragonard’s painting shows more movement – for example, in the opposing diagonals of Psyche and the figure of Envy or the almost Baroque upward lift of the columns and putti. Fragonard’s colours are also sharper, such as the pale lemon dress of one of the sisters, its acidic tone perhaps denoting her envy.

It has been suggested that the figure of Psyche may have been inspired by the King’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour. She is shown later in life in Drouais’s Portrait of Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid
Artist: Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Artist dates: 1732 - 1806
Date made: 1753
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 168.3 × 192.4 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1978
Inventory number: NG6445
Location: Room 35
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 20th-century Replica Frame

Provenance

Collection of Denis‐Pierre‐Jean Papillon de La Ferté (1727–1794); confiscated from his estate in 1794 following his execution, but restituted in 1795; Papillon de La Ferté (deceased) sale, Lebrun, Landais C.P., Paris, 20 February 1797, lot 100 (149 francs 19 to an unknown buyer); Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847–1929); sold on behalf of the executors of Harry Mayer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery (1882–1974) and his family, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, 25 May 1977, no. 2422 (£8,000 plus 10 per cent buyer’s premium to David Carritt Ltd as by Carle Vanloo); bought by the National Gallery in 1978 for £495,000.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings’, London 2018; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2015

Fragonard Amoureux

Musée du Luxembourg

16 September 2015 - 24 January 2016

Bibliography

1860

Duc de Luynes, Mémoires sur la Cour de Louis XV 1735-1758, eds L. Dussieux and E. Soulié, Paris 1860
1874

L. Courajod, L'École royale des élèves protégés, Paris 1874
1889

P. de Nolhac, J-H Fragonard 1732-1806, Paris 1889
1889

R. Portalis, Honoré Fragonard, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris 1889
1954

L. Réau, Fragonard, Paris 1954
1969

G. Wildenstein, The Paintings of Fragonard, London 1969
1972

D. Wildenstein and G. Mandel, L'opera completa di Fragonard, Milan 1972
1974

A. Pigler, Barockthemen: Eine auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikongraphie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 2nd edn, Budapest 1974
1978

K. Roberts, 'Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions', The Burlington Magazine, CXX/903, 1978, pp. 409-14
1979

M.J. Massengale, 'Drawings by Fragonard in North American Collections', The Burlington Magazine, CXXI/913, 1979, pp. 270-2
1979

J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, III, 1979, pp. 66-7
1979

National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1979 - February 1980', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, IV, 1980
1980

National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: January 1978 - December 1979, London 1980
1985

M. Wilson, French Paintings before 1800, London 1985
1986

M. Levey, Director's Choice: Selected Acquisitions 1973-1986: An Exhibition to mark the Retirement of Sir Michael Levey as Director of the National Gallery (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 17 December 1986 - 15 February 1987), London 1986
1987

D. Sutton, 'Jean-Honoré Fragonard: The World as Illusion', Apollo, CXXV/300, 1987, pp. 102-33
1987

P. Rosenberg, Fragonard (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 24 September 1987 - 4 January 1988; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2 February - 8 May 1988), New York 1987
1988

J.-P. Cuzin, Fragonard: Life and Work: Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New York 1988
1989

P. Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Fragonard, Paris 1989
1991

C.B. Bailey, Les amours des dieux: La peinture mythologique de Watteau á David, Paris 1991
1992

C.B. Bailey, The Loves of the Gods: Mythological Painting from Watteau to David (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 15 October 1991 - 6 January 1992; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 23 February - 26 April 1992; Kimbell Art Museum, 23 May - 2 August 1992), New York 1992
1995

S. Michalski, 'Koresos und Kallirhoe: Opferungszene une Théâtre des Ombres', Artibus et historiae, 31, 1995, pp. 189-207
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2018

Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Eighteenth Century French Paintings, London 2018

Frame

This is a reproduction of an eighteenth-century Louis XV-style Versailles frame, made in Paris in 1978. Carved from oak and limewood, the frame is fully water-gilt with two shades of gold leaf: gold (24 carat) and green gold (16 carat).

Bundled reeds adorn the back edge. The stop flutes on the back moulding alternate with acanthus leaves and flower buds, with some of the details gilded in green gold. The sanded flat leads to the sight edge decorated with an acanthus-leaf-and-tongue motif. The carving is further enhanced by engraved lines made by the ‘répareur’. The corner cartouches have a shell motif at the tip and a convex rosette in the centre, surrounded by bundled reeds. These cartouches are enclosed with S-shaped scrolls finishing with roses and leaves, accented in green gold.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.