Hesiod and Muse by Gustave Moreau

Hesiod and Muse by 19th century French painter Gustave Moreau depicts the ancient Greek poet and writer from the Homeric age who authored Theogony and Works and Days. This subtly modelled black chalk drawing with pen and brown ink depicts the winged, angelic Muse holding aloft a flower. At the poet’s side is the staff made from a laurel branch that she has gifted him. Gustave Moreau exhibited with great success in the late 19th century French Salon, and later became an important professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. His noteworthy students included the Modernist Fauve painters Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault. Moreau’s work has much in common with classical 19th century French painters such as Ingres and Delacroix, but he is usually considered part of the French Symbolist movement for his archaic classical style and literary, religious and mythological subject matter.