Andromeda Chained to the Rock by the Nereids

Many painters of this myth show the rescue, with the hero Perseus swooping in to kill the sea monster. Théodore Chassériau chose the moment before it, when the sea nymphs called Nereids fasten Andromeda to the cliff. Her mother, Queen Cassiopeia, had boasted of being more beautiful than the Nereids, and the daughter is made to pay. Andromeda's black hair streams in the wind and her eyes are wide with fear, while the nymphs close the cuffs and handle the chains with calm, lowered eyes. He signed and dated it at the lower left in 1840 and showed it at the Salon of 1841. The picture then stayed in private hands for almost 150 years, first with the collector Eugène Piot, until the Louvre bought it in 1986. It hangs in the Sully wing, in a room given over to Delacroix.