Psyche Abandoned (painting)

It shows Psyche as a crouching female nude in profile against a blue sky with a hill in the background.

This transfer meant there was no opportunity for an early release from prison and David was also isolated from the outside world (visits from friends, family, and students had previously been allowed at the Hôtel des Fermes).

[6] Pajou's marble sculpture Psyche Abandoned is considered an important precedent for David's painting.

It is thought that David experienced significant mental distress as a result of his arrest and his declining public reputation.

Psyche’s expression and pose conveys more desperation than loss, her body crouched over, her arms covering her chest, with no indication of sensuality except for her missing clothing.

The art historian Ewa Lajer-Burcharth has suggested that Psyche's sexual indeterminacy relates to David’s own crisis of identity during his imprisonment, when his sense of masculine stoicism began to erode.

[6]: 63–64 A 2011 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston contrasted the painting with David’s better known The Oath of the Horatii.

Psyche Abandoned was presented as David's turn away from Neoclassicism, showcasing intense, individual emotion instead of heroic acts of virtue and morality.