Guillaume Seignac (French, 1870-1924). Disarming Cupid. Oil on canvas. 25-1/2 x 21-1/4 inches (64.8 x 54.0 cm). Signed l...

Description

Guillaume Seignac (French, 1870-1924)
Disarming Cupid
Oil on canvas
25-1/2 x 21-1/4 inches (64.8 x 54.0 cm)
Signed lower left: G - Seignac

PROVENANCE:
Rehs Galleries, Inc., New York, Inventory number B1823;
Private collection, Massachusetts, acquired from the above, 2012.

The mischievous antics of Cupid had long been a popular pictorial subject and found a receptive audience in late nineteenth-century France. Known for his ability to cause even the most powerful god or man to succumb to uncontrollable desire, Cupid, in the present work, is rendered harmless by his mother, the goddess Venus, who lovingly embraces him while snatching away his bow and arrows. Seignac, skillfully depicts Cupid as a sweet, winsome boy enjoying the attentions of his mother; a sharp contrast to the cruel torment of heartbreak he is capable of inflicting.

Guillaume Seignac forged a successful career as a painter of Classical antiquity that was strongly influenced by the example of William Bouguereau, the preeminent French Academic painter of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A product of the Académie Julian in Paris, Seignac trained directly with Bouguereau, as well as his like-minded colleagues Tony Robert-Fleury and Gabriel Ferrier, who emphasized impeccable draftsmanship and focused on idealized beauty both in their own work and their teaching. In Disarming Cupid, we see the master return to a favored motif in order to satisfy his eager clientele.




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