'Cupid and Psyche', sold for over a one and a half million euros

26/04/2010 09:17:00

The auction house Sotheby's in New York has sold the painting Cupid and Psyche for $ 2.2 million (1.6 million) , by French artist William Bouguereau in which two lovers are depicted as adults on a large scale. The work was valued at between 1.8 and $ 2.2 million (1.4 and 1.6 million euros) and finally sold at a total of $ 2,210,500 (1.651 million euros), within the bid of the auction house in the Big Apple devoted to European art of the nineteenth century and which has raised a total of over $ 13.2 million (986 million euros).



Cupid and Psyche (1899) is one of three unique versions that Bouguereau (1825-1905) showed Cupid and Psyche as two young adults, as in other paintings by the celebrated artist appealed to children or cherubs to explain the myth union between the two mythological lovers. "This work of Bouguereau embodies his technical mastery, particularly when presenting the human form, and Cupid and Psyche appear as if they were flesh and blood, rather than created with paint and brush", said experts from Sotheby's auction.

Also the French artist, who was in love a recurring theme in his career and whose career was inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, the work has been sold to L'Amour affut (1890), valued at between 600,000 and $ 800,000 (448 000 and 597 000 euros), and which eventually sold at $ 794,500 (593,597 euros). Bouguereau was one of the leading representatives of the academic stream of painting that developed in France during the nineteenth century and was marked by tracking the classic rules established by the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.

The auction also included The Farmer's Daughter (1887), a work of what was French artist's wife, Elizabeth Jane Gardner American, which exceeded its estimated value between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars (149,400 and 224,000 euros), to be sold at $ 494,500 (369,000 euros).

"It is a work that marked a milestone in the history of French and American art, since it documents the long and arduous efforts of painters such as Gardner, who aspired to enjoy careers in an industry dominated by men in France in mid-century XIX ", drew attention from Sotheby's. Another work that has achieved a result millionaire is Camp on Mount Sinai (1842), Britain's John Frederick Lewis (1804-1876) and done in watercolor, which has awarded more than $ 1.8 million (1.3 million) and has passed and the value we had calculated the auction house ($ 1.5 million, 1.1 million euros).