The same year that the Swedish artist Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller was elected to the French Academy of Fine Arts, he painted this Cupid as Bacchus for the new Swedish ambassador in Paris, Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein. Wertmüller appears to be a Classicist, with the emphasis on sculptural form and subdued colouring, but there is none of the time’s heroism here. Instead, the painting exudes joie de vivre, albeit a little saccharine.