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The setting of 'Venus and Cupid' is suitably ethereal, with Cupid handing his cloud-borne mother a golden apple, the prize she had won from the shepherd Paris (cf. Boucher P444). Venus was the Roman goddess of love and fertility, and often symbolised visual beauty. Beauty and desire were central concerns of eighteenth-century French art. Venus often appears in decorative painting of the period, sometimes accompanied by her son, Cupid, and with her attributes, which include a pair of doves or swans, roses, dolphins, a scallop shell, and flaming torches. The painting probably formed a pair with P423.

The Wallace Collection

London

Title

Venus and Cupid

Date

1750s

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 79.2 x W 139 cm

Accession number

P411

Acquisition method

probably acquired by Sir Richard Wallace, at an unknown date; bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, 1897

Work type

Painting

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The Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, Greater London W1U 3BN England

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