Orpheus weeping over Eurydice's tomb

The French Revolution led to the temporary closure of the Académie de France in Rome, which was looted in 1793, preventing Guérin from benefiting from the three-year stay that his victory in the Prix de Rome of 1797 should have offered him. So it was from Paris that he produced his "envoi de Rome", presented to the Louvre in 1800, before leaving for the Eternal City three years later. The subject he chose, taken from Greek mythology, enabled him to focus his painting on the graceful body of the ephebe mourning the death of his wife. The myth has inspired many artists: trying to escape the assaults of Aristaeus (son of Apollo) on the day of her wedding to the poet Orpheus, Eurydice is bitten in her tracks by a snake with deadly venom. Despairing of her loss, Orpheus descends to the Underworld to fetch her, charms the ferryman Charon and the dog Cerberus with his lyre, and convinces Hades and Persephone, who rule the Underworld, to return his bride to him. His wish is granted, on condition that his gaze does not cross hers before they return to earth. Filled with joy at the thought of finding her, he forgets his promise and, as he turns to look at her, Eurydice's shadow disappears forever into the darkness. This painting, which remained Guérin's property, entered the collection of his sole legatee, the painter Michel Bourdon, on his death in 1833, before being bought in 1841 by Léon Cogniet, who was Guérin's pupil. It was donated to the museum by his widow in 1883, in memory of the painter's friendship with Eudoxe Marcille, director of the museum from 1870 to 1890.