
Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
French artist Gustave Moreau created this drawing in 1857 while in Rome, depicting the ancient Greek poet Hesiod receiving inspiration from a Muse. The work in chalk, pen, and ink shows Moreau's early fascination with classical subjects that would define his career as a leading Symbolist artist.
At Hesiod's feet rest a lyre and laurel branch, traditional symbols of poetic art and honor. According to ancient accounts, Hesiod was a shepherd tending his flocks on Mount Helicon when the Muses appeared and taught him to sing. His subsequent poems, including Theogony and Works and Days, became foundational texts of Greek literature.
Moreau would return to this subject multiple times throughout his life, creating versions in 1870 and 1891 that now hang in the Musée National Gustave Moreau and Musée d'Orsay. This 1857 drawing belongs to the Fogg Museum at Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having been bequeathed to the collection in 2011.

George Frederick Watts
Fogg Museum (Harvard Art Museums), Cambridge, MA, Cambridge

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Fogg Museum (Harvard Art Museums), Cambridge, MA, Cambridge

Mary Cassatt
Fogg Museum (Harvard Art Museums), Cambridge, MA, Cambridge

Paul Gauguin
Fogg Museum (Harvard Art Museums), Cambridge, MA, Cambridge
Other masterpieces from the Symbolism movement

Gustav Klimt, 1912
Neue Galerie, New York

Gustav Klimt, 1909
MAK Vienna, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1907
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gustav Klimt, 1915
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1908
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Gustav Klimt, 1907
Private Collection, Unknown

Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Helsinki

Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Helsinki
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection