The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow

Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow

1807
(Belgian, 1750–1835)
Belgium, Brussels, 19th century
terracotta
Overall: 22.8 cm (9 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1977.72
Location: 301 Baroque Sculpture Mezzanine

Did You Know?

Cupid traipses daintily on rose blossoms, ready to shoot his love-filled arrow at an unsuspecting victim.

Description

This clay model is a maquette for a sculpture in limestone more than three feet tall, entitled Cupid Disguised, Hiding Under a Veil. The motif is borrowed from the Marlborough cameo (an ancient Roman cameo now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 99.101) that was a source of inspiration for neoclassical artists. The gem illustrates the wedding of Cupid and Psyche—shown as veiled children with protruding wings—from which Godecharle extracted the single figure of Cupid and, instead, depicted him in ambush.
  • -1913
    Joseph Henry Fitzhenry [1836-1913], London
    1914
    (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Fitzhenry sale, Feb. 18-21, 1914, no. 499, sold to Lemay)
    1914–
    Lemay
    Until 1929
    Marius Paulme [1863-1928], Paris
    1929
    (Paulme sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 15, 1929, no. 320, possibly sold to Comte de Rivaud)
    1929-
    Possibly Comte de Rivaud
    1972
    (Sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, Dec. 6, 1972, no. 49
    Until 1977
    (Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler, Munich, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1977–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 Galerie Georges Petit (Paris). Catalogue des sculptures en marbre, terre cuite, plâtre des XVIIe, XVIIIe & XIXe siècles par ... composant la Collection de M. Marius Paulme ... May 15, 1929.
    2 An annotated copy of the Fitzhenry sale catalogue notes that the Godecharle was sold to "Lemay."  
    3 Handwritten next to the Godecharle in a copy of the 1929 Paulme sale catalogue is the annotation, "Comte de Rivaud[?]".  It is somewhat unusual for a buyer annotation to include a question mark, and the reasons for the uncertainty are unknown.  Comte de Rivaud may be René Rivaud de la Raffinière (b. 1887) or Olivier Rivaud de la Raffinière (1875-1938), both members of a prominent banking family. 
  • Hôtel Drouot. Catalogue des objets d'art ... faiences, porcelaines ... tableaux, livres ... meubles ... dont la vente après décès de M. Fitzhenry. Feb. 18-21, 1914.
    Galerie Georges Petit (Paris). Catalogue des sculptures en marbre, terre cuite, plâtre des XVIIe, XVIIIe & XIXe siècles par ... composant la Collection de M. Marius Paulme ... May 15, 1929.
    Musée Galliéra. Objets d'art et de bel ameublement. Dec. 6, 1972.
    Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler, invoice, July 25, 1977, in CMA curatorial file.
    Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1977." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 1 (1978): 2-42. p. 38, cat. no. 9, repr. p. 17 25159560
    Draper, James David, and Guilhem Scherf. L'esprit créateur: de Pigalle à Canova : terres cuites européennes, 1740-1840. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2003. cat. no. 87, p.208-209
    Draper, James David, and Guilhem Scherf. Playing with Fire: European Terracotta Models, 1740-1840. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. cat. no. 87, p. 194-195
  • L'Espirit Créateur de Pigalle à Canova: Terres cuites européennes 1740 à 1840. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (September 15, 2003-January 5, 2004); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (January 30-April 23, 2004).
    The Persistence of Classicism in Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1988-January 15, 1989).
    Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978).
  • {{cite web|title=Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow|url=false|author=Gilles-Lambert Godecharle|year=1807|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1977.72