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Description: | Signed: yes Description: For the Salon of 1864, Courbet submitted a picture entitled Venus jealously pursuing Psyche (destroyed in Berlin during the Second World War, another version in Bern) which depicted Venus in the same pose, clambering onto the bed of the sleeping, naked Psyche to the left. This painting, a study for the sleeping Psyche and the two finished works relate to another picture of 1866, Woman with a Parrot (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) where the same bed with the twisted columns appears. According to the classical myth, the mortal maiden Psyche was so beautiful that she even aroused Venus's envy. It was unusual for Courbet to use a mythological title. He normally painted only things seen. 'Show me an angel and I will paint it', he famously declared. However, the respectable mythological title disguised an underlying theme of lesbianism which had attracted many French (male) writers and artists throughout the nineteenth century. The jury of the Paris Salon promptly rejected the picture on the grounds of indecency. At this stage in his career, Courbet commented, 'If that picture is immoral, we ought to shut up all the museums in Italy, France and Spain.' | Subjects: | figure; mythology (Venus Psyche) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Courbet, Gustave (French painter and designer, 1819-1877) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=9170... | Go to resource |
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