Venus Comforting Cupid
Framed: 33 9/16 x 28 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches (85.25 x 73.34 x 4.45 cm)
Benjamin West painted many versions of this tender scene recalling an ode by the ancient Greek poet Anacreon. Here, Venus comforts her son, Cupid, after he suffers a bee sting. This painting reflects the noble ideals and elevated sentiments of the history painting genre, for which West became a key representative.
The American-born West left for Italy in 1760 to expand his artistic repertoire. There he saw the increasing influence of classical antiquity on artistic style and taste. He learned sophisticated glazing techniques that differed from the painting methods he learned in Pennsylvania. After three years in Italy, he permanently settled in England.
Possibly The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, exh. cat. (London: B. McMillan, 1802), 8 (as Cupid Wounded by a Bee in the Finger);
possibly “A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West,” Public Characters of 1805 (London, 1805), 566 (as Cupid Complaining to Venus of a Bee Having Stung His Finger);
possibly “A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West,” Universal Magazine (London) 3 (June 1805), 530 (as Do. of Cupid Complaining to Venus of a Bee Having Stung His Finger);
possibly Joel Barlow, The Columbiad. A Poem (Philadelphia: C. and A. Conrad, 1807), 435 (as Cupid Shows Venus His Finger Stung by a Bee);
possibly “A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West Esq.,” La Belle Assemblée; or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine (London) 4 (1808), supplement, 18 (as Picture of Cupid Complaining to Venus of a Bee Having Stung His Finger);
possibly John Galt, “A Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West,” in The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy of London (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1820), pt. 2:229 (as Do. of Cupid Complaining to Venus of a Bee Having Stung His Finger);
Messrs. Christie, Manson & Wood, London, 21 December 1923, lot 44 (as Venus and Cupid);
“Benjamin West Painting Acquired by the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art,” Kansas City Star, 26 March 1933, Inset sec., 1;
“Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, Acquires Art Covering Wide Range,” Art Digest 7 (1 April 1933), 7;
“The Acquisitions,” Art Digest 8 (1 December 1933), 22;
“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art: Complete Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings,” Art News 32 (9 December 1933), 28; “Recent Purchases for Nelson Museum,” [1933], clipping, NAMA curatorial files; NAMA 1933, 123, 138;
M. K. P., “Colonial Art and Textiles Draw Crowds to Two Centers,” Kansas City Times, 5 March 1934, 13;
Exhibition of American Painting, exh. cat. (San Francisco: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1935), unpaginated;
Richard Graham, “Benjamin West: American Romantic; A First One-Man Show in Philadelphia on His Bicentenary,” Art News 36 (19 March 1938), 13;
“Local Show Reveals Progress Women Have Made in Painting,” Kansas City Star, 1 April 1938, 20; Benjamin West, 1738–1820, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Museum of Art, 1938), 43; NAMA 1941, 167;
“The Century of Mozart,” Bulletin (William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 1 (1956), 32; NAMA 1959, 258;
John Gage, “Magilphs and Mysteries,” Apollo 80 (July 1964), 38, 40, 41n20; NAMA 1973, 255;
possibly John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1977), app. 1:174, 195 (as Picture of Cupid Complaining to Venus of a Bee Having Stung His Finger and Cupid Wounded by a Bee in the Finger);
NAMA 1977, 28; Robert C. Alberts, Benjamin West: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), 227 (as Cupid Stung by a Bee); possibly Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, ed. Kenneth Garlick and Angus Mcintyre (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978), 3:702–3, 722, 732, 744, 750–51;
Ross E. Taggart, “American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri,” Antiques 122 (November 1982), 1028;
Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 129–30, 234–35, 460–61 (as Cupid Stung by a Bee); NAMA 1991, 60–61; John Gage, Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999), 154–55.
