The Muse Erato Writing Verses Inspired by Love

Charles Meynier (French, 1768-1832) - The Muse Erato Writing Verses Inspired by Love, c.1797 (Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with white gouache over black chalk underdrawing; squared in black chalk. Met) - - In 1797 François-Bernard Boyer-Fonfrède, an industrial textile manufacturer, commissioned Meynier to paint nine canvases featuring Apollo and the Muses for a large room in his home in Toulouse. Meynier exhibited the painting based on this drawing at the Salon of 1800 but ultimately only completed five canvases, as his patron ran out of money…