Orpheus by Gustave Moreau Postcard

Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre is a mournful oil painting by 19th century French master Gustave Moreau that recounts the death of the mythological ancient Greek poet and singer Orpheus. 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 Henri 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.