The Four Seasons
1850
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1850
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Four Seasons is a 1850 unspecified by Henry Picou, a French Classical Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Henry Picou painted four scenes in one frame. Each shows a season in ancient Greece. Spring has lovers near flowers. Summer shows bathers by water. Fall has grape pickers. Winter shows mourners at a grave. Picou belonged to the Néo-Grecs. They copied ancient Greek and Roman daily life. But they added a twist—often a hint of romance or mystery. This work sits in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
The artists who painted this work belonged to a group called the Néo-Grecs (New Greeks). They concentrated on depicting scenes of daily life in ancient Greece and Rome—often with an erotic slant. Here, relying on a popular Greco-Roman theme, the four works represent the seasons and their associated activities: the pursuit of love in spring; bathing in summer; harvesting grapes in fall; and a funerary ritual in winter. The decorative gold, black, and red borders also enhance the classical aspect of the work by recalling the painted wall decorations of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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