Psyche Throwing Herself into the River (1865–68): Art, History and Details

Psyche Throwing Herself into the River (1865–68) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is William Morris (British, 1834–1896); Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Psyche, a mortal, has been abandoned by her lover, the god Cupid, in this print. The young woman steps sobbing into a river as her hair flows behind her. This image is one of the few illustrations ultimately realized from an early collaboration between designer William Morris and artist Edward Burne-Jones. Centered on Morris’s retelling of ancient myths and legends, the project was abandoned after they had engraved the illustrations for one of the 24 stories because the pair was unable to find a suitable publisher. The experience ultimately led Morris to establish his own firm, the Kelmscott Press.

Object facts

• Title: Psyche Throwing Herself into the River
• Date: 1865–68
• Creator attribution: William Morris (British, 1834–1896); Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: wood engraving
• Dimensions: to borderline: 10.5 x 8.2 cm (4 1/8 x 3 1/4 in.); Sheet: 13.2 x 11.8 cm (5 3/16 x 4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Wood engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1981.90

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hepburn, Victoria. "The Kelmscott Press." IN William Morris: Designing an Earthly Paradise. Cory Korkow and Victoria Hepburn, 24-39. Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland Museum of Art, 2017

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.