This depiction of Venus and Cupid is datable – on stylistic grounds – to c.1652. Several contemporary works by Flinck, relate to this painting, namely a drawing of that date in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, in which the pose of the reclining female nude relates almost exactly to Venus here and a drawing in the Louvre 'Endymion Discovers Diana and her Playmates' – inv. (21.925) 272. The treatment of the drapery may be compared directly with that in Flinck's 'Bathsheba kneeling before David', dated 1651, in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Flinck produced a number of depictions of Venus and Cupid, or Cupid alone, around 1650. The figure of Cupid here is most comparable to that of the Sleeping Cupid dated 1652, in Schloss Caputh, Potsdam. Another painting of the subject, likewise from 1652, today in Schloss Oranienburg (inv. no. GK I 2273), also shares many characteristics with this work, such as the smooth rendering of the flesh defined by graphic contours and outlines – though the present painting appears to be Flinck's only representation of the goddess asleep.