Venus and Cupid (in Sketch Book With Drawings on Twenty-six Leaves)
ca. 1849
Medium
Graphite
Dimensions
Sheet (page): 7 7/8 x 10 7/8 in. (20 x 27.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1942
Accession Number
42.21(10)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In Frederic, Lord Leighton's *Venus and Cupid*, created around 1849, we glimpse the budding genius of a young artist—then just 19—who would become one of Victorian Britain's foremost painters. This intimate graphite drawing, housed within sketchbook of twenty-six leaves, captures the mythological duo in a tender embrace: Venus, goddess of love beauty, with her son Cupid. Rendered on a modest sheet measuring 7 7/8 x 10 7/8 inches, it exemplifies Leighton's early mastery of line and form using simple pencil strokes. As a preparatory study from his formative years in Europe, the work foreshadows...
About the Artist
Frederic, Lord Leighton · 1830–1896
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton (1830–1896), was born on 3 December 1830 in Scarborough, England, to a prosperous medical family. His father, Dr. Frederic Septimus Leighton, and mother, Augusta Susan, provided him with financial security throughout his life, while his grandfather, Sir James Boniface Leighton, had served as physician to Russian tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I. After early ed...