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Oedipus at Colonus
About the Artwork
The ancient mythical Greek king Oedipus fulfilled his fate by unknowingly killing his father and marrying his mother. He subsequently blinded himself and was exiled. Here, Oedipus reprimands himself, while protecting his daughter Antigone. Oedipus became popular in France just after the French Revolution, since the subject addressed the return of exiles. The ancient Greek writer Sophocles provided the best-known version of the tragedy, but an interpretation that played in Paris in 1797 inspired Harriet’s work.
Inscriptions
on reverse of stretcher: white sticker "57/78", chene label; on obverse: lower right "harriet fcit an6"
Exhibition history
Artlens Exhibition 2019. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Fulchran Jean Harriet (French, 1778–1805)
- Date
- 1798
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 187.5 x 164.5 x 8.5 cm (73 13/16 x 64 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 157 x 134 cm (61 13/16 x 52 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 2002.3
Provenance
2002-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Probably 1966 - 2002: Foucart collection, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art Until 1966: (Art market, Paris)
More by Fulchran Jean Harriet in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009253
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