Phrosine and Mélidore

Prud’hon created this print as an illustration for a 1797 edition of Gentil Bernard’s sensual and tragic poem of the same name. The young Phrosine, at right, falls in love with Mélidore, but her jealous brothers separate the two and banish Mélidore to a life as a hermit on a nearby island. Desperate to see her beloved, Phrosine swims across the channel at night, and collapses, naked, into her lover’s arms.