Antoine Coypel (Paris 1661-1722)

A study for Coypel's painting of the same subject first exhibited at the Salon of 1699 and now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (fig. 1; Garnier, op. cit., no. 68, fig. 127). The subject comes from Apuleius' Metamorphoses. The painting was engraved by Jean Audan. There is another related drawing in the Louvre (Garnier, op. cit., no. 265, fig. 129) which is sketchier but indicates the background composition of trees and clouds, unlike the present drawing which concentrates on the pose of Psyche, the figure of Cupid summarily indicated in white chalk.