俄耳甫斯

Moreau had barely exhibited for years when he sent this to the Salon of 1866, and it rescued his reputation. The subject is his own invention. The poet Orpheus has been torn apart by the women of Thrace, and a young girl has lifted his severed head onto his own lyre, gazing down at it in an embroidered dress that is half Greek, half Eastern. No ancient text describes this gentle aftermath; Moreau supplied it himself. The state bought the painting for 8,000 francs, its first real endorsement of him. Behind the girl, dawn is breaking over the rocky hills of Thrace where the poet was killed.