L'Amour et Psyché, enfants

An 1890 oil painting by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, shown at the Paris Salon that year while he served as president of the Société des Artistes Français. It depicts the mythological lovers Eros and Psyche as young children embracing, rather than as adults, using their innocence to represent the couple before Venus's jealous interference in their story; Psyche carries butterfly wings, referencing the Greek word psyche for both soul and butterfly. Bouguereau renders the pair in soft brushwork and cool, pastel tones among clouds, a treatment typical of his classicizing style. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/