Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
Clio, Muse of History
About the Artwork
Look closely at these two muses, Greek goddesses of the arts. Notice the blues and golds of their clothing and Clio’s luminous feathered wings. Although they now hang in a museum gallery, these large paintings once decorated a castle in Switzerland. Museums control temperature and humidity to protect art, but a castle’s environment is harder to manage. When the CMA purchased these paintings in 2003, they showed signs of neglect. Their surfaces were cracked. The varnish, or clear protective coating, had become dark and yellow with age. Painting conservators carefully removed the old varnish to reveal the original brilliant colors, and inpainted areas of paint loss by filling them in with matching paint. Which muse would you want to talk to? What would you ask her?
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.
Exhibition history
ArtLens Reimagined: The Intersection of Art, Technology, and Innovation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 23, 2026-September 1, 2031).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832)
- Date
- 1800
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 290 x 192.4 x 7 cm (114 3/16 x 75 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 273 x 176 cm (107 1/2 x 69 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Accession no.
- 2003.6.5
More by Charles Meynier in museum collections
Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry, and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy
Charles Meynier1798 · Painting
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-00009436
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