Love Animating Galatea, the Statue of Pygmalion

Henry Howard's Love Animating Galatea depicts the moment when Pygmalion's beloved sculpture comes to life through the power of Venus, a subject from Ovid's Metamorphoses that was popular in Neoclassical art. Howard was a prominent member of the Royal Academy and served as its Professor of Painting, producing classical subjects in the manner of his teacher Henry Fuseli. The Pygmalion myth had special resonance for artists as an allegory of art's transformative power.

Howard's oil-on-canvas technique demonstrates the smooth, idealized figure style of British Neoclassical painting, with clear drawing and restrained coloring. The composition arranges the classical figures with the academic clarity taught at the Royal Academy.