Cupid and Psyche (van Dyck) Cupid and Psyche (van Dyck) Cupid and Psyche is a 1638–40 painting by Anthony van Dyck. It is now in the Royal Collection and shown in Kensington Palace. Psyche may be modelled on van Dyck's mistress Margaret Lemon. One of the last in his oeuvre, it shows a marked influence of Titian and dates from his time as a court artist to Charles I of England. It is his sole surviving mythological painting from that period and possibly comes from a series of paintings on the Cupid and Psyche theme ordered for the Queen's House at Greenwich - other artists
Anthony van Dyck his nine-month visit, during which he was knighted. Charles's court portraitist, Daniel Mytens, was a somewhat pedestrian Dutchman. Charles was very short, less than tall, and presented challenges to a portrait artist. Van Dyck had remained in touch with the English court and had helped King Charles's agents in their search for pictures. He had also sent back some of his own works, including a portrait (1623) of himself with Endymion Porter, one of Charles's agents, a mythological work, "Rinaldo and Armida" (1629, now in the Baltimore Museum of Art), and a religious picture for the Queen. He had also