Designs for the "Cupid and Psyche" Frieze

Edward Burne-Jones

Date: 1872

Materials: Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour

Dining room frieze

In 1872 George Howard, the future Earl of Carlisle who was himself a painter with Pre-Raphaelite sympathies, commissioned the Morris firm to decorate his substantial new house at 1 Palace Green, Kensington.

Burne-Jones was asked to fill the dining room with a frieze of paintings, and decided to condense the illustrations already made for Morris's 'Earthly Paradise' into twelve sections.

With the assistance of the artist Walter Crane, the oils were finally completed in 1881; they were in place for only forty years, being taken down in 1922 and presented to Birmingham (where they await conservation and display).

Venus & Psyche

The titles of each image are given on the mount, offering an explanation of the narrative concerning Psyche, a king's daughter, who becomes the bride of Cupid (Love), thereby incurring the wrath of Venus; assisted by the other gods, she is reunited with Cupid, forgiven by Venus, and made immortal herself.