Pygmalion and Galatea

Greece to Paris, 530 BCE–1890

Jean-Léon Gérôme

Pygmalion and Galatea

about 1890

Oil on canvas, 35 × 27 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904). Look at the colour of the statue: it is chalk white at the feet and warms to living flesh as it rises.

Look at

  • The change from marble to skin happens in a smooth gradient up the legs, with no line where one stops.
  • The sculptor's blue tunic is the strongest colour, set against the grey-green upper wall.
  • The surface is as smooth as the statue it shows, even across the whole picture.
  • The pair are seen from behind, so the kiss is half hidden and the back of the figure fills the picture.
  • The statue is the painter's own marble group, brought to life as he kisses it.

Image: Wikimedia Commons (CC0 file from The Met's Open Access release) · CC0

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