Oil on copper, Cupid's Pastime 'nymph and swain', Angelica Kauffman, ca. 1780

A nymph bends her bow at a shepherd while Cupid half-hidden in the trees points at her.

Possibly collection of W. Dallas O. Grieg, Esq., in 1884; purchased in 1886.

Historical significance: Angelica Kauffman's pictures were particularly popular in England and were used in interior decorations such as murals and designs painted on furniture, mostly in cooperation with the architect Robert Adam. Her designs were often distributed as prints and this particular composition was engraved by G.S. and J.G. Facius (The British Museum, London - 1873,0809.291).
The painting forms a pair with 23-1886, which subject matter has been identified as an illustration of a poem written by Francis (?) Davidson, c. 1620, and compiled by Thomas Percy in his anthology entitled Reliques of Ancient Poetry (1765). The painting illustrates the second part of the poem: the nymph awakes and seizes her bow and bends it at the shepherd with one of Cupid's arrow, whereas the beginning of the poem is shown in 23-1886: a nymph is asleep and a shepherd observes her while Cupid replaces one of her arrows with his own.
Another oval composition (Old Westbury Gardens, Long Island, New York) of the exact same dimension shows the same nymph and shepherd in another situation. This suggests that the three paintings originally formed an ensemble. The Long Island painting was formerly in the collection of Sir Charles Rushout and bought by him from the collection of W. Dallas O. Grieg, Esp., in 1884. The date of acquisition of the present painting suggests that they share the same provenance.

Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) was born in Switzerland and was seen as a child prodigy. She soon specialised in history and portraits paintings while in Italy (especially Florence, Rome and Naples, Bologna, Parma and Venice) she was influenced by the nascent Neo-classical style. She became a member of the Roman Accademia di San Luca at the age of 23. She arrived in London in June 1766 and remained there for 15 years before moving back to Italy with her second husband the painter Antonio Zucchi (1726-1796). In London, she was a founder-member of the Royal Academy. All her life, she enjoyed international patronage such as the family of George III in Britain, Grand Duke Paul and Price Nikolay Yusupov in Russia, Queen Caroline of Naples and Emperor Joseph II of Austria among others. She died in Rome where her funeral was arranged by the Neo-classical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822).

This composition was executed c. 1780 by A. Kauffmann as an illustration of a poem written by Francis Davidson (c. 1570-c. 1620) and compiled by Thomas Percy in his anthology entitled Reliques of Ancient Poetry (1765). The painting forms a pair with 23-1886, which illustrates the beginning of the poem whereas the present painting shows the second part of it. It is a fine example of neo-classical design inspired by poetic sources often contemporary even when they appear entirely classical in content.

24-1886