Psyche

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Psyche

John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917

Oil on canvas

1903

Anthony Hobson says that contemporary critics were "unanimous of their praise" of this painting, adding that he was drawn to the model and the subject, but that repetition did not matter, because "the figure was always human, sensitive, and never a mere stereotype" (81). [Click on the image to enlarge it. Commentary continues below.]

Image credit (with thanks): jwwaterhouse.com. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee, and formatting by Banerjee and George P. Landow.

Psyche was a beautiful mortal who disobeyed and angered her lover, Venus's son Cupid, by looking in his face. Her curiosity got the better of her again later, when she peeped inside a golden box (one of the tests or, rather, traps that Venus set for her), to find everlasting sleep inside — notice the poppies in the right-hand foreground. But Eros has not forgotten her. He finds her and wakes her up by drawing the "fumes" from her, and takes her to Zeus, begging to be allowed to marry here. Zeus first makes her immortal and the two are wed. This is the tricky moment in the story, before that, when she gives way to her unbearable curiosity again... a very human characteristic, and, as often as not, a failing. However, it is perhaps a forgivable one, and all ends well.

Bibliography

Bridges, Robert. Eros and Psyche: A Poem in Twelve Measures (from the Latin of Apuleius). London: George Bell, 1885. Internet Archive, Open Library (see especially Measure XI, 142-43). From a copy in the Library of Congress. Web. 19 August 2021.

Hobson, Anthony. The Art and Life of J. W. Waterhouse, R.A.. Oxford: Phaidon/Christie's, 1989.

Last modified 4 August 2015