Henri Godet, After William-Adolphe Bouguereau

This marble is based on the popular painting of the same subject by William Adolphe Bouguereau of 1895 which depicts Cupid lifting the nude Psyche heavenward, their entwined bodies bathed in radiant light against a soft, cloud-filled sky. In the present marble group Godet successfully translates the weightlessness of the two figures into three dimensions as Cupid seems to lift his lover from the ground.

Henri Godet was a pupil of Mathurin Moreau, and exhibited at both the Salon and the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts in the 1890s.

RELATED LITERATURE

E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Grund, 1999, vol. 6, p. 235