Cupid and Psyche

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Hugh Douglas Hamilton , Irish, 1740-1808

Title

Cupid and Psyche

Datec.1792

MediumPen and brown ink with white bodycolour and graphite on paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 32 x 25.5 cm

Signedlower right: H. D. Hamilton, Roma

Credit LinePurchased, 2005

Object numberNGI.19617

DescriptionThis is a study for an oil painting (NGI 1342) exhibited in Dublin in 1800. Hamilton was probably inspired to undertake this mythological theme by Antonio Canova (1757-1822), who created marble sculptures of Cupid and Psyche in Rome in the 1790s. The graphite overdrawing shows that Hamilton experimented with the placement of the limbs of both figures. A very similar, unsigned drawing of the same subject exists in the collection of Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, Massachusetts. Currently attributed to Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781-1835), it is most likely a slightly earlier study by Hamilton.
ProvenancePurchased, Private Collection, 2005Exhibition HistoryHugh Douglas Hamilton: A Life in Pictures, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2008-2009

Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 March 2010 - 25 July 2010