Merkurs og Psykes flugt

Pauelsen employs smooth, almost seamless brushwork to render the figures with a light, ethereal quality. The winged messenger is rendered in a delicate hat and feathers, while Psyche’s flowing hair and diaphanous drapery suggest movement without harsh outlines. The restrained palette of grays and soft tones reflects the Rococo’s preference for elegance and subtlety.

Created two years after the artist’s death—Pauelsen died by suicide in 1790—the painting entered the national collection of Statens Museum for Kunst, where it remains on display. Though contemporaneous with more celebrated Danish painters such as Jens Juel and Nicolai Abildgaard, Pauelsen’s reputation never reached comparable prominence.

In the late eighteenth century, Danish art was transitioning from the decorative Rococo toward the emerging Neoclassicism championed by Abildgaard. Pauelsen’s work, with its mythological subject and graceful execution, reflects the lingering Rococo taste for mythic romance while hinting at the more disciplined approach that would soon dominate Danish academies.