Cupid Untying The Zone Of Venus (Reynolds)
''Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus'' (originally entitled ''A Nymph and Cupid: 'The Snake in the Grass or ''The Snake in the Grass, or Love unloosing the zone of Beauty''; later also known as ''Love and Beauty'' and ''Cupid Untying the Girdle of Venus'') is a painting by Joshua Reynolds. It shows Cupid untying the girdle of his mother Venus (mythology), Venus – the latter was modelled on Emma, Lady Hamilton, Emma Hart. Provenance The earliest version was that exhibited in 1784 and bought by the Tate Britain, Tate Gallery in 1871. A 1785 autograph copy made for Reynolds' niece the Mary Palmer (1750–1820), Marchioness of Thomond was bought at the sale of her collection in May 1821 by Sir John Soane – it is thus now in the Soane Museum. In 1788, John Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort, Lord Carysfort commissioned an autograph copy to present to Grigory Potemkin, Prince Grigory Potemkin, which is now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. References

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Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Early life Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, master of the Plympton Free Grammar School in the town. His father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer (1716–1794), seven years his senior, author of ''Devonshire Dialogue'', whose fondness for drawing is said to have had much influence on him when a boy. In 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshua's pupilage, and nine years later a ...
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