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Polymnia is one of the nine muses in Greek mythology and a patron of dancing or geometry. She is portrayed here standing in front of a bust of the Athenian orator Demosthenes. This painting belongs to a cycle of five works commissioned by businessman François Boyer-Fonfréde for his home in Toulouse.

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Details

  • Title: Polyhymnia, Muse of Eloquence
  • Creator: Charles Meynier (French, 1768-1832)
  • Date Created: 1800
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall: 275 x 177 cm (108 1/4 x 69 11/16 in.)
  • Provenance: In 1819, Nicolas-Antoine de Castella, general of the Swiss regiments in France, purchased the paintings and placed them in his Castle of Wallenreid, Switzerland; direct descendants; Pierre de Castella, Mannaz, Switzerland.
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.6.1
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Fun Fact: Meynier was trained in a studio known by the students of Jacques-Louis David as the atelier of the "perruques" (wigs), a name given to royalists or conservatives of the period.
  • Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
  • Culture: France, late 18th-early 19th century
  • Credit Line: Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
  • Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
  • Accession Number: 2003.6.1

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