Orpheus, Painting by Gustave Moreau Tie

Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre is a mournful oil painting by Gustave Moreau that recounts the death of the mythological ancient Greek poet and singer Orpheus. Orpheus had descended and returned from the Underworld seeking his lost wife, but in the end was done in by Maenads, female followers of Dionysus. At the top of Moreau’s composition a trio of figures play their pipes in remembrance. Gustave Moreau exhibited with great success in the late 19th century French Salon, and later became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. His noteworthy students included the Modernist Fauve painters 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 literary, archaic classical style and religious and mythological subject matter.