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Details
- Place where the work was made
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London
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England
- Date
- circa 1919
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- bronze
- Dimensions
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81.0 x 33.0 x 47.5 cm
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base, 4.9 x 46.2 x 33.2 cm, information for display purposes only - attached to base
- Credit
- Purchased 1924
- Location
- South Building, ground level, Grand Courts
- Accession number
- 141
- Copyright
- Wynne Prize
- - 1922
- Artist information
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Eva Benson
Works in the collection
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About
The South Australian–born sculptor Eva Benson studied at the City and Guilds of London Institute, where she probably made 'Psyche'.
Benson followed academic tradition in her choice of a nude mythological subject for this sculpture. In Roman mythology, Psyche was a mortal woman whose beauty rivalled that of the goddess Venus. Finding herself the object of Venus’s jealousy, Psyche undertook a series of trials to be reunited with her lover, Cupid. Here, she tends to an arrow wound inflicted by Cupid to wake her from a sleeping spell. Psyche is coyly posed in a gesture halfway between concealment and revelation. Her bowed head and cascading drapery echo the emotional gravity of her trials.
'Psyche' is skilfully rendered in a neoclassical style that was popular in Australia and Europe during the interwar years, while the textured rockery shows the influence of French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
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Places
Where the work was made
London
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Exhibition history
Shown in 6 exhibitions
Australian women artists: one hundred years, 1840-1940, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 Oct 1975–02 Nov 1975
Early Australian scupture: from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, 15 Mar 1977
Australian sculpture 1890-1919, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Jan 1987–22 Feb 1987
Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art 1890's-1930's, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Oct 1989–26 Nov 1989
Archie Plus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Sep 2020–07 Mar 2021
Grand Courts collection rehang, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov 2021–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 7 publications
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Deborah Edwards., Australian sculpture 1890-1919, 'Australian sculpture 1890-1919', Sydney, 1987. no catalogue numbers
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Deborah Edwards, Stampede of the Lower Gods: Classical Mythology in Australian Art, Sydney, Sep 1989, 64.
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Deborah Edwards, Daphne Wallace, Margo Neale, Victoria Lynn and Sandra Byron, Review: works by women from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995.
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Noel Hutchinson, Early Australian sculpture, from its beginnings up to circa 1920, Ballarat, 1977, illus.. cat.no. 5
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Joan Kerr (Editor), Heritage: The national women's art book, Sydney, 1995, 223 (colour illus.), 224. cat.no. 379. Entry by Annette Larkin and Deborah Edwards. Biography by Annette Larkin pg. 311-312.
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Lionel Lindsay, 150 years of Australian art, Sydney, 1938. cat.no. 57 [Sculpture in Gallery No. 1]
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Ken Scarlett, Australian sculptors, Melbourne, 1980, 58 (illus.), 59.
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