Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010650Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
inscribed on the edge of the base at right: "Godecharle" and "1807."
Provenance
-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
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). The Persistence of Classicism in Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1988-January 15, 1989). 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).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (Belgian, 1750–1835)
- Date
- 1807
- Medium
- terracotta
- Dimensions
- Overall: 22.8 cm (9 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Accession no.
- 1977.72
More by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010650
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