Venus Clipping Cupid's Wings, second plate

"Venus Clipping Cupid's Wings, second plate" is an etching created by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot French, 1796-1875, between 1869 and 1870. Executed late in his career, the work showcases Corot's deepening exploration of the printmaking medium. This impression is rendered skillfully on ivory laid paper, utilizing the precise yet atmospheric qualities afforded by the etching technique. While Corot is globally recognized for his seminal landscape paintings, he produced a significant and masterful body of graphic work, including this delicate representation of classical mythology.

The subject, drawn from Greco-Roman mythology, depicts the goddess Venus restraining her son, Cupid (Eros), and temporarily disabling him by clipping his wings. This mythological narrative symbolically represents the control of earthly desire or the temporary cessation of love’s influence. Corot, a prominent figure in 19th-century French art, often integrated such classical themes into his compositions, lending a timeless quality to his scenes while maintaining his characteristic softness of light and form.

Corot refined this particular composition through multiple iterations in print, demonstrating his commitment to mastering both the experimental cliché-verre process and traditional prints like this etching. As a crucial example of French graphic arts from this period, the artwork is preserved in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The detailed execution and soft tonal range characteristic of Corot’s later output ensure that this work remains widely studied today, often reproduced for scholarly purposes, making high-quality images available through public domain initiatives.