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Lot Essay
Drawn in preparation for the head of Psyche in Boucher's Cupid threatening Psyche with his dart, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, François Boucher, Lausanne, 1976, I, no. 152). That picture, signed and dated 1741, was one of four intended for the hôtel Mazarin in the rue de Varenne of which one other, The Education of Cupid, is also at LACMA.
Alastair Laing has kindly confirmed the attribution to Boucher on studying the original, noting that both the drawing of Psyche formerly in the collection of Marius Paulme and the reproductive print of her head by Demarteau (A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, op. cit., nos. 177/6 and 152/2) cannot be securely attributed, leaving the present work as the only known drawing for the picture. We are grateful for Mr. Laing's kind help in preparing this note.
Alastair Laing has kindly confirmed the attribution to Boucher on studying the original, noting that both the drawing of Psyche formerly in the collection of Marius Paulme and the reproductive print of her head by Demarteau (A. Ananoff and D. Wildenstein, op. cit., nos. 177/6 and 152/2) cannot be securely attributed, leaving the present work as the only known drawing for the picture. We are grateful for Mr. Laing's kind help in preparing this note.