Fine condition aside from slight discoloration at right edge. A study for ‘The Education of Orpheus 1932’, exhibited at ‘Bryson Burroughs Memorial Exhibition 1935’ no. 37 in catalogue.

Exhibited: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, No. 56. February 18th through March 17th, 1984.

Provenance:

Bryson Burroughs (d. 1934) to his widow Louise Burroughs (d. 1980) to Bryson Burrough’s daughter-Betty Burroughs Marsh Woodhouse (d. 1988) to Lilla Woodhouse (Mrs. Brierly S. Woodhouse, son of Betty Woodhouse, d. 1985) to Virginia von Schlegell (agent) to Childs Gallery.

Orpheus is mentioned by many great poets, including Ovid and Virgil. Their writings depict him as one of Ancient Greece’s greatest poets and musicians, with ability to tame wild beasts, redirect rivers and even make trees and and rocks dance merely by playing his lyre. He supposedly learned to play music from the Sun God Apollo. Considered to be the son of Oeagrus, king of Thrace, and Calliope, the muse of Epic Poetry, Orpheus is also credited with being a pioneer of civilization, bringing medicine, literature and agriculture to the ancient Greeks. He is most known in literature for his drowing out of the Sirens with his lyre while traveling with Jason and the Argonauts and when his lover Eurycide died, playing music so sad that nature and the Gods aliked mourned. Unable to bare the sorrow of Orpheus’s songs, the Gods granted him to permission to go and fetch her from the underworld under the condition he didn’t look back while leading her out. However, at the mouth of the entrance to the underworld, he turns and Eurycide vanishes.