Manufacture Dufour, Pair of wallpapers figuring Psyche and Cupid, vers 1815

Manufacture Dufour, author.

Pair of wallpapers by the Manufacture Dufour figuring two scenes from the history of Psyche and Cupid.
One represents Psyche, dressed in the Antique style, walking on a mineral landscape, emerging from Hell after picked up the ointments’ bottle that Venus requested, by revenge for her son Cupid, that Psyche betrayed. The scene represents the moment where Psyche opens the bottle that gives off smoke that will kill her.
The other represents the hymen of Psyche and Cupid. After the death of Psyche, Cupid looks for her and revives her thanks to one of his arrows. He takes her to the Olympus where Jupiter celebrates their marriage. The scene takes place into the clouds and represents Cupid standing on a bed, holding Psyche by the waist and undoing the link holding her tunic, both are dressed in the Antic style. At their foot, we can find the bow and arrows of Cupid and below them a putto, that can be the god Hymen, holding a crown of flowers, highlighting their marriage.

Wallpaper strips have been shortened and framed by gilt wood sticks adorned with a beads frieze motif.

The two strips n°22 and 26 untitled “Psyche returning from Hell” and “Hymen of Psyche and Cupid” came from the panoramic set “The History of Psyche and Cupid” composed of 26 strips.

This wallpaper was realized by drawers and engravers Xavier Mader, Louis Lafitte and Merry-Joseph Blondel, thanks to François Gérard and Pierre-Paul Prud’hon neoclassical drawings and paintings. It was printed for the first time in 1815 on mechanic wallpaper with a handmade-brushed grey background thanks to 1245 carved wood planks for a total of 23 colours then reedited by the Manufacture Desfossé & Karth in 1872, 1889, 1923 and 1931. Here the pair presented is probably one from the first Dufour printing, in 1815.

This panoramic decor is inspired by the novel wrote by Jean de La Fontaine, Les amours de Psyché et Cupidon (1669) itself inspired by the tale L’Ane d’or by Apulée (2^nd century).

The Manufacture Dufour was founded in 1797 in Mâcon, by Joseph Dufour (1754-1827) who worked from 1790 in a wallpaper manufacture in Lyon. After the success of the panoramic wallpaper The Savages from the Pacific sea at the Exhibit of the Products of the French Industry in Paris in 1806, the manufacture came in Paris and had a great success. In 1819, Dufour presented what he thought to be his masterpiece: the wallpaper figuring the history of Psyche and Cupid. He received a silver medal during the French Industry Exhibit for this wallpaper.
The various subjects of his wallpapers (panoramic, landscapes, antic subjects…) composed a set of prestigious and expensive wallpapers but he also had a more common production with recurring patterns.

Sources :

Site web du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Papier peint panoramique « L’Histoire de Psyché », ( https://madparis.fr/francais/musees/musee-des-arts-decoratifs/parcours/xixe-siecle/le-beau-ideal-un-style-pour-l-empire/papier-peint-panoramique-l-histoire-de-psyche-psyche-rapportant-a-venus-un )
Pastiaux-Thiriat, Site web du Centre de Documentation Joseph Dufour – Tramayes, 2011, Odavia.com, (http://joseph-dufour.odavia.com/)