| Love Locked Out | |
| Artist: | Anna Lea Merritt |
| Completion Date: | 1890 |
| Type: | genre art |
| Material: | oil paint |
| Height Metric: | 115.6 |
| Width Metric: | 64.1 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Subject: | Cupid |
| City: | London |
| Museum: | Tate Britain |
| Accession: | N01578 |
| Url: | TATE online |
Love Locked Out is an oil painting by Anna Lea Merritt first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890 and which became the first painting by a woman artist acquired for the British national collection through the Chantrey Bequest.The painting of Cupid standing before a locked door was well received when it was shown. Merritt's first painting of a nude model, Eve Overcome with Remorse, had met with unfavourable reviews after winning a medal at the Royal Academy in 1885.[1] But this painting, which was created as a memorial to her husband, was received favourably, though it again featured a nude model - and this time the model was male, a controversial subject for women artists at that time.[1] Merritt escaped censure by choosing a child to portray Cupid, rather than an adult, such as her Eve had been.[2]
As a notable work by an American painter, Love Locked Out was included in the 1905 book Women Painters of the World.[3] The title also became the title for the compilation of Anna Lea Merritt's memoirs, published by Galina Gorokhoff in 1982.[4]
The piece was purchased in 1890 by the Chantry fund, London, for £250 (after inflation, would be equivalent to ~£26,300 in 2023). Clara Erskine Clement, an American author noted that ".. this honor has been accorded to few women, and of these I think Mrs. Merritt was first."[5]