''Aurora and Cephalus'' is an 1811 painting by

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin Pierre-Narcisse, baron Guérin (13 March 1774 – 6 July 1833) was a French painter, born in Paris. Biography A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, he carried off one of the three ''grands prix'' offered in 1796, in consequence of the competitio ...

, now in the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...

in Moscow. Measuring 251 × 178 cm, it illustrates lines 661-866 of Book 7 of Ovid's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' and is a version of the artist's 1810 work of the same subject. An oil sketch for the 1811 work has been in the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

since 1978 (inventory number GE-10310). It and ''Morpheus and Iris'' were commissioned by Prince

Nikolay Yusupov Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (; – 15 July 1831) was a Russian nobleman and art collector of the House of Yusupov. Biography He was the fifth child and only surviving son of Prince Boris Grigoryevich Yusupov (1695-1759). He served as a se ...

for his

Arkhangelskoye Palace Arkhangelskoye () is a historical estate in Krasnogorsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russia, located around 20 km to the west of Moscow and 2 km southwest of Krasnogorsk. History From 1703 to 1810, Arkhangelskoye belonged to the Golit ...

, where it was first exhibited in the Psyche Salon. In 1834 it was moved to the

Moika Palace The Palace of the Yusupovs on the Moika (), known as the Moika Palace or Yusupov Palace, is a former residence of the Russian noble House of Yusupov in St. Petersburg, Russia, now a museum. The building was the site of Grigori Rasputin's murder ...

in St Petersburg and after the October Revolution it and other works from the Yusupov collection were seized for the national collection. In 1924 it entered the

, but in 1925 it was transferred to the new Pushkin Museum in Moscow.Кузнецова И. А. Французская живопись XVI — первой половины XIX века. Государственный музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина. — М.: Изобразительное искусство, 1992. — С. 261.

References

Paintings in the Pushkin Museum 1811 paintings Paintings of Greek goddesses Paintings based on Metamorphoses Nude paintings of men Nude paintings of women Oil on canvas paintings Paintings by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin {{1810s-painting-stub