The Infant Psyche

This large ivory statue of Psyche is described as follows in R. B. Guelle's "Notes Critical and Biographical" (1895): "How light and airy is this charming figure poised on tiptoe, her moth-like wings extended as if she were about to rise into the air. She is the embodiment of youthful and unconscious beauty, with limbs that still retain some of the childish form whose every joint is pinned with dimples. Chaste, pure and innocent, it is as joyous and happy a thought as ever sprang from the hand of a sculptor. The charming face has all the quaintness of a Greuze, and the wonderful growth of hair that is gathered into a knot on the top of the head is so finely executed that it seems to have the fluffy texture of real hair" (p. 214).

This piece closely resembles several bronzes of the same subject by Auguste Louis Mathurin Moreau.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

William T. or Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest [accessioned 13 December 1939 from 5 West Mount Vernon Place].