Clio, Muse of History

Charles Meynier

Cleveland Museum of Art

The painting depicts a woman with wings sitting on a stone block, wearing a yellow dress and a gray shawl draped over her shoulders. She has a laurel wreath on her head and is barefoot. Her right hand holds a stylus, and her left hand rests on a writing tablet. The woman's wings are predominantly white with brown and orange feathers at the tips. In the background, there is a stone wall with a statue of a person sitting on it. To the left of the woman, there are trees, a cloudy sky, and pyramids in the distance. In the foreground, there are some broken objects, including what appears to be a helmet and a shield, and a person wrapped in cloth.