Venus Persuading Helen to Love Paris

Venus Persuading Helen to Love Paris or Venus Induces Helen to Fall in Love with Paris is a 1790 oil on canvas painting by Angelica Kauffman.

Preparatory sketches survive in the Royal Collection and the British Museum. Previously in the collection in the Yusupov Palace, the painting was seized by the state after the Russian Revolution and kept in the Palace (converted into the Yusupov Palace Museum) until 1925, when it was moved to its present home in the Hermitage Museum.

It shows Helen of Troy (far left) being persuaded by Venus (centre) to fall in love with Paris (right), abandon her husband Menelaus and go with Paris to Troy, thus triggering the Trojan War. Venus' son Cupid holds Paris's hand.