Amore e Psiche, bambini

Bouguereau showed this at the Paris Salon in 1890, the year he was president of the official artists' society, at the very top of the academic world that younger Impressionists were busy rebelling against. He takes the old myth of Cupid and Psyche, usually a story of grown desire and its troubles, and paints the two as small children instead, sharing a soft kiss in mid air. Psyche has the wings of a butterfly, a quiet pun, since the Greek word psyche meant both soul and butterfly. Notice how much of the picture is cool blue rather than the warm reds you might expect for a love scene. That choice keeps everything gentle and innocent, the moment before any of the myth's trouble begins. The flesh is polished to that seamless finish Bouguereau's admirers prized and his critics mocked.