Top and bottom photos: Jonathan Russell (taken while on display during Painting Light and Hope exhibition, Manchester Art Gallery, 2018-2019); central image artuk.org.

New Gallery catalogue, 1891.

• Title(s): Cupid and Psyche (multiple sources).
• Description: Two figures, both nude, a young woman facing the viewer being kissed on the cheek by a young man; the young man has blue-coloured wings and holds a bow in his right hand. “Cupid with deep blue wings, background of rosy mist and mountain” (New Gallery catalogue, 1891).
• Media: oil on canvas (artuk.org).
• Dimensions: 147 x 91 cm (artuk.org).
• Date/signature/other text: “Annie L Swynnerton, 1891” (front of canvas, lower right).
• History:
  • 1891 – Dated 1891 on canvas.
  • 1891 – Exhibited New Gallery; bought by Charles Edward Lees (artuk.org).
  • 1892 – “gift from Charles Edward Lees, 1892” (artuk.org).
  • 1902 – Exhibited “Loan Collection of Paintings,” Brighton Art Gallery, 1902.
  • 2018-2019 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
• Location: Gallery Oldham (artuk.org).

The painting was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1891, being described in the catalogue as ‘Cupid with deep blue wings. Background of rosy mist and mountain,’ and was afterwards purchased by Charles Lees and presented to Oldham Art Gallery in 1892. Charles Lees came from a family of wealthy businessmen and factory owners and was a keen collector of art and generous beneficiary to the town’s gallery.

In the original myth, Psyche is a young girl whose beauty rivals the goddess Venus, so Venus tells Cupid to wound Psyche with one of his magic arrows and cause her to fall in love with something or someone hideous. However, Cupid accidentally scratches himself with one of his own arrows and so falls madly in love with Psyche upon seeing her, and whisks her away to a luxurious mansion. She, a mortal, is never allowed to see or know who her lover is (hence her eyes being closed in the painting). Eventually Psyche plays a trick to discover Cupid’s identity, but in the process is also wounded by one of his arrows, causing her to fall deeply in love with him also. The couple are forced to separate and have to endure many ordeals, but eventually Jupiter takes pity on them and makes Psyche immortal so that the couple can be together forever.

Annie’s husband, Joseph, is recorded as exhibiting a ‘Cupid and Psyche’ sculpture fifteen years earlier at Leeds Mechanics’ Institution in 1875.

The Manchester Courier of 2 November, 1877, comments on a piece by Annie on display at the Manchester Academy that year called Amor and Psyche …

… an ambitious work … Whilst we commend the artist for her desire to realise something in the higher walks of art, we cannot but regret that she should have attempted so difficult a subject as Cupid and Psyche …

References:

• ‘Cupid and Psyche’, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art
• Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 (Glasgow University).

---

Page last updated 2 Jun 2025.