Orphée

Orpheus and Eurydice, G.F. Watts, second half of the 19th century, oil on canvas

Nimble and white hands on the lyre close to your heart.

Orpheus! Sashay, sashay! On the rocky and mossy path!

Entwine these gods waiting on the evil moor with your muslin voice.

Show them how you could drink out of Eurydice's soul-vial and atone and die.

In the crimson world surely the sedges wither and drown by the lake's wondrous shores

but the clamour of human hearts dwindles not.

Let the heavenly creatures suspire a qualm.

Forlorn Eurydice, be close to Orpheus and let not the old myth become something we did not want it to be. 

Follow closely, open your eyes for the disguise

of these mundanes in the rock. Fall not! Stay astir.

Orpheus! Let your fancy drive you to dreams of your Eurydice. 

Skitter, skitter your way up. Stride, stride on the rustling rocks. 
The reunion shall be sweet. Damned be the women of Thrace. They will not pass their hideous fingers through your fair curly hair.

Selection of 19th century and early 20th artworks :

La mort d'Eurydice, Ary Scheffer, Salon de 1814, oil on canvas, MBA de Blois

Orpheus and Eurydice on the Banks of the Styx, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, 1878, oil on canvas,private coll. ?

Orphée et Eurydice, Michael Putz-Richard, late 19th century, oil on canvas, private coll.

Orphée, Gustave Moreau, 1865, oil on wood, Musée d'Orsay

La douleur d'Orphée, Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, 1876, oil on canvas, MBA de Mulhouse

Orphée sur la tombe d'Eurydice, Gustave Moreau, 1890, oil on canvas, Musée Gustave Moreau

Orphée mort, Jean Delville,  1893, oil on canvas, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts

Orphée et Eurydice, Auguste Rodin, 1893, marbre, MET

Orpheus, Melchior Lechter, 1896

Orphée dans l'Hadès, Pierre-Amédée Marcel-Beronneau, 1897, 

Orphée, Odilon Redon, 1903, pastel, Cleveland MoA

Nymphs finding the head of Orpheus, John William Waterhouse,  1905, oil on canvas, priavte coll.

Orpheus and Eurydice, Charles de Souzy Ricketts, 1922, oil on canvas,