Home ⇒ 🎨Moreau Gustave ⇒ Thracian girl with the head of Orpheus on his lyre by Gustave Moreau


Thracian girl with the head of Orpheus on his lyre by Gustave Moreau

Thracian girl with the head of Orpheus on his lyre by Gustave Moreau

In his “red notebook” Moreau noted the following about this picture: “The girl finds the head of Orpheus floating on the water and his lyre. She reverently pulls them out of the river flow. A gentle gesture.”

Orpheus was a musician and a singer, from the sound of his lyre, the forests and mountains, started to dance. Heartbroken after the death of his beloved Eurydice, he refused to worship God Bacchus, for which he was torn apart by evil Menadas, thrown into the Ebro River, where they sailed to the sea. Moreau came up with the poetic finale of this story: in his version, a Thracian girl discovers his head and lyre.

“Orpheus” – one of the most transparent paintings of the artist. Here he refuses the abundance of symbolic details characteristic of his early works and creates a simple, but at the same time majestic composition. The picture was shown in the Salon of 1866 and purchased by the state for 8,000 francs. Exposed during the artist’s life, she was the only one permanently accessible to any viewer and therefore became the most famous of his works.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

Related Paintings:

  1. Fille thrace avec la tête d’Orphée sur sa lyre – Gustave Moreau Dans son “carnet rouge”, Moro a noté ce qui suit à propos de cette photo: “La jeune fille trouve Orphée et sa lyre flottant sur l’eau. Elle les sort avec...

  2. Tesea’s Daughters by Gustave Moreau Despite the distrust of female nature, even on the slope of his life, Moreau continued to write a female nude in the tradition of Ingres, mastered by the artist through...

  3. Inspiration by Gustave Moreau Traditionally, watercolor was considered a “low genre”, but from about the middle of the 19th century, people began to take it more seriously. In his early years, Moreau used watercolor...

  4. Tattooed Salome by Gustave Moreau Moreau began to paint this painting around 1874, but it remained unfinished. Details of the situation and the tattoo on the body of Salome speak of Moro’s increased interest in...

  5. The girl’s head is Jan Vermeer Vermeer is known as an outstanding master of genre painting, but in his creative heritage there are also paintings created in other genres. Among the master’s masterpieces, no doubt, four...

  6. Sirens by Gustave Moreau From the 1870s, Moro’s heightened interest in color led the artist to experiment with an abstract composition, the basis of which was a bold, carefully thought out contrast of tones....

  7. Appearance by Gustave Moreau For the show at the Salon, Moreau chose the watercolor version, and left this oil painting in the workshop along with two other, smaller canvases, which also showed scenes with...

  8. Jason and Medea by Gustave Moreau French painter Gustave Moreau painted his paintings for religious, mythological and allegorical paintings throughout his life. His works were very popular among his contemporaries. In 1865, the artist creates the...

  9. Muse, leaving his father Apollo by Gustave Moreau Creativity Gustave Moreau was divorced from the realities of the French life of the XIX century. He created mythological and religious paintings, fashionable for the time. The artist created his...

  10. Jupiter and Semela by Gustave Moreau Not a single canvas demonstrates Moreau’s faith in the “need for luxury” as vividly as the painting “Jupiter and Semele,” on which the artist worked on for several years. He...

  11. Oedipus and the Sphinx by Gustave Moreau The works of Gustave Moreau, a French artist, were closely associated with symbolism. But the nature of his work was different. The main principle of the artist was the principle...

  12. Salome Dancing Before Herod by Gustave Moreau Literature, painting and art as a whole knows the themes, motifs, and plots, called the “eternal.” No, no, of course, nothing lasts forever, and time mercilessly passes through the sand...

  13. Orpheus and Eurydice by Nicolas Poussin The wonderful musician and singer Orpheus conquered with his talent not only people, but even gods and nature itself. He was married to the beautiful nymph Eurydice, whom he loved...

  14. Saint George and the Dragon by Gustave Moreau St. George, striking a dragon, is a very popular plot in Renaissance painting. In the XIX century, interest in this topic with a new force manifested itself primarily in England,...

  15. Unicorns by Gustave Moreau Very often, the source of Moro’s inspiration became works of medieval art. The artist believed that medieval symbols could be used to spiritualize contemporary art. Moreau hundreds of times copied...

  16. Hesiod and Muse by Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau “Hesiod and Muse”. Description of the painting Gustave Moreau studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris under Theodore Chasserio. The artist was fond of ancient Greek...

  17. Samson and Delilah by Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau was brought up in the classical Western tradition, but a great influence on the artist had his acquaintance with the exotic culture of distant countries, from different times...

  18. Phaeton by Gustave Moreau The first car inevitably had to be like a wagon or cart – after all, it was created not from scratch, but on the principle of analogy, similarity. Carts and...

  19. Girl with a coin (Girl of Galicia) by Bartolome Esteban Murillo This small canvas belongs to the category of genre paintings by the great artist. It is quite different from its somewhat pretentious and mannered works in the Baroque style, created...

  20. Las hijas de Tesea – Gustave Moreau A pesar de la desconfianza de la naturaleza femenina, incluso en la pendiente de su vida, Moreau continuó escribiendo un desnudo femenino en la tradición de Ingres, dominada por el...