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Poor Cupid
Edmonia Lewis (born Greenbush (now Rensselaer), NY 1844-died London, England 1907)
modeled ca. 1872, carved 1876
- Medium
- marble
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 27 x 13 3/4 x 12 1/4 in. (68.6 x 34.9 x 31.1 cm.)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Alfred T. Morris, Sr.
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Edmonia Lewis occasionally carved sculptures of mythical scenes, which were very popular with American tourists visiting Rome. Poor Cupid, or Love Ensnared, depicts the cherub with his hand caught in a trap as he reaches down for a rose. Frivolous sculptures like this appealed to the Victorian sentimentality of affluent Americans traveling around Europe.
