Lot 2331 Dα

This gouache entitled "Genius Lyra" belongs to a series of motifs in the style of classical antiquity developed around 1810. A bearded man is depicted against an olive coloured ground, with two swan necks growing out of the side of his head. Between them stand the three Graces, forming the strings of a lyre. Tischbein sent this antique-inspired motif in the form of a booklet with further scenes to Goethe in 1817 with the request that each of the pictures be accompanied by a poem. For unknown reasons, the poet did not comply with this request. Instead, Tischbein himself wrote a poem in which the unity of poetry and image is echoed: "[...] When the graces' silent round dance/embraces us with pure grace: then the genius' lyre/as Anacreon played it resounds". (Quoted from Mildenberger 1986, p. 30).
Other versions, some of which are only sketches, can be found in the Landesmuseum Oldenburg, in the National Research and Memorial Sites in Weimar and in the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum in Schleswig.