Getty Museum

The Father of Psyche Consulting the Oracle of Apollo

Creator

French Artist · 1770–1837

Raised in Rome, Neoclassical painter François Gérard acquired a love of Italian painting that informed his art for life. Returning to Paris around 1782, he studied under such artists as sculptor Augustin Pajou and painter Jacques-Louis David, who hired him as assistant in 1791. By 1793, with both parents dead and taking full responsibility for his youngest brother, Gérard earned a living by illust

More on Getty ULAN

Date: about 1796
Medium: Pen and brown and gray ink, brown and gray wash, and gouache, over black chalk
Culture: French
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

Impatient to hear the oracle's message, Psyche and her mother enter the temple at the moment when the oracle reveals the beautiful girl's fate: she will marry a heartless monster. The oracle points a finger at Psyche, who collapses into the arms of her mother while her father and Cupid watch. The severity of the design emphasizes the drama's tragic atmosphere. Reflecting the influence of his mentor Jacques-Louis David, François Gérard explicitly divided his composition between male and female protagonists, contrasting the women's emotionalism with Psyche's father's frowning severity and restraint. At the Paris Salon of 1796, Gérard exhibited five drawings made as models for engraved illustrations of Jean de la Fontaine's poem, *Les amours de Psyché et de Cupidon* (The Loves of Psyche and Cupid). The Getty Museum's drawing, rediscovered in the 1990s, is the only one among the original five known today.

View at Getty Museum ↗

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Getty Museum

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.