The Victory of Eros
1750–75
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 19 x 23 11/16 x 2 7/8 in. (48.3 x 60.2 x 7.3 cm)
Classification
Painting
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of James DeLancey Verplanck and John Bayard Rodgers Verplanck, 1939
Accession Number
39.184.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Angelica Kauffmann’s *The Victory of Eros* captures a tender mythological moment in which the god of love triumphs amid blooming roses and graceful female figures. Painted in oil on canvas between 1750 and 1775, the modestly scaled work reflects the Neoclassical taste for classical subjects rendered with clarity and elegance. Kauffmann, one of the few women admitted to London’s Royal Academy, brought a refined sensibility to such themes, blending delicate color harmonies with poised compositions that appealed to eighteenth-century collectors. The painting’s presence in the Metropolitan Museum...
About the Artist
Angelica Kauffmann · 1741–1807
Swiss painter and etcher, and one of the few women artists of the time working in the Neo-Classical style to specialize in both portraits and subject pictures. Her famous sitters include the family of George III in Britain, Grand-Duke Paul and Prince Nikolay Yusupov in Russia, Stanislav II Poniatowski and Stanislav Kostka Potocki in Poland, Queen Caroline of Naples and Emperor Joseph II of Austria...