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Dear Joan of Art:

I recall a Benjamin West painting with a cupid in it. I've searched the Web and books and can't find it. Did I imagine it?

Dear Visitor,

You have an excellent memory! The piece you are recalling is Helen Brought to Paris. West painted this work in 1776.

The painting shows Venus floating in on a cloud and gently urging Helen of Troy—the "face that launched a thousand ships"—toward an expectant Paris, who sits entranced by her beauty. The moment is full of drama and tension. In Greek mythology Helen's deliverance to Paris was the spark that ignited the Trojan War. Cupid's shadowed eyes seem to foretell the dark events to come. The choice of this incident from classical literature may also allude to the Revolutionary War that erupted in 1776, the year West completed this painting. West was a close personal friend of King George III and served as his historical painter, yet remained a partisan to the revolutionaries' cause.

This artwork is currently traveling the nation in our exhibition Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The show is currently on view at the Ackland Museum of Art in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, through February 17, 2002.

I hope this information is helpful!

Sincerely,
Joan of Art

Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Benjamin West, 1738 USA–1820 England, Helen Brought to Paris, 1776, oil, 56 1/2 x 75 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.