[1] The work represents a return to the classical themes Greuze had abandoned after the poor reception for his The Emperor Severus Reproaching His Son Caracalla (1769).

He began the work around the same time as he was commissioned to paint Innocence Led Captive by Love, another scene involving Cupid, by the comte d'Artois.

However, Cupid Crowned remained incomplete, possibly due to the onset of the French Revolution, and was only exhibited publicly upon the death of the artist's daughter and heir Caroline Greuze in 1842.

In the episode represented, Psyche is seated and is about to lay her white crown of purity on the forehead of a kneeling, androgynous looking Eros.

Behind her, Modesty turns her face away while in the background a cupid places two wreaths of roses on a bed and another one throws incense into a burner.