Hesiod and the Muse

In 1882 the Académie des Beaux-Arts, France's official academy of art, turned Gustave Moreau down and elected the painter Gustave Boulanger instead. Six years later Boulanger died, and Moreau was elected to his seat. In 1891 he painted this small panel and dedicated it, in the inscription along the bottom, to Count Henri Delaborde, the Academy's permanent secretary, with deep gratitude and affectionate respect. The subject comes from the opening of the Theogony, where the Greek poet Hesiod tells how the Muses found him herding sheep on Mount Helicon, gave him a laurel branch and breathed a divine voice into him. Here a single winged Muse leans over the young poet's shoulder, a sprig of laurel in her hand, while he holds a tall, ornate lyre. A star shines above them, and a temple crowns the rocky peak behind.