The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Full conservation statement
  Before entering the collection, this entire suite of five monumental paintings by Charles Meynier had numerous conservation issues, including pronounced discolored varnish, years of accumulated grime, and canvases that were detaching from their stretchers, creating large, draped, buckles along the edges. The CMA designed a four-year-long comprehensive conservation campaign to address these concerns, which involved removing the grime, reducing the discolored varnish, flattening buckles and undulations in the canvas, followed by inpainting mainly to compensate for pronounced traction cracking in the original paint layers. Traction cracking occurs when the top layers of paint dry faster than the underlayers, creating breaks in the top layers, revealing the underlying preparatory layers that were not intended to be seen. Horizontal cracking at regular intervals is present in each painting and was likely caused by rolling the canvases to transport them to the Castella chateau in Wallenreid, Switzerland, where the paintings remained until the CMA purchased them in 2003. After removal of the discolored, nearly brown varnish layers, nuanced, dynamic, and balanced color relationships were uncovered, as Meynier skillfully juxtaposed colors within the draperies of the muses. For example, in Clio, the Muse of History, Meynier places her muted yellow costume next to a soft gray-violet drapery. These two complimentary colors are beautifully balanced against each other. Upon closer looking, one can even see violet shadows within the folds of the yellow drapery and faint yellow, bridging the two colors. The exquisitely carved gold leaf frames are original to the paintings.
• Provenance
  In 1819, Nicolas-Antoine de Castella, general of the Swiss regiments in France, purchased the paintings and placed them in his Castle of Wallenreid, Switzerland; direct descendants; Pierre de Castella, Mannaz, Switzerland.
• Citations
  Bellenger, Sylvain. "Magnificent Muses", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 01, January 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: cover, p. 5, p. 7 archive.org

  "Major Acquisitions 2000-2005." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 45, no. 6 (July/August 2005): 6-19. Reproduced: p. 13 archive.org

  Bracken Sparks, Amy. "Disappearing Act." Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 48, no. 5 (May/June 2008): 10-12. Reproduced: p. 11 archive.org

  Wat, Pierre. "Procession des-ismes ou parade des individus? Comment s'ecrit l'histoire de l'art du X"IX siecle." In L'art du XIX siecle: l'heure de la modernite,1789-1914. 20-75. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2016. 20-21

  Wat, Pierre. "Procession des '-ismes' ou parade des individus? Comment s'ecrit l'histoire de l'art du XIX siecle." In L'art du XIXe siècle: l'heure de la modernité 1789-1914. Bertrand Tillier, 21-76. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2016. Reproduced: p. 20

  Musée du Grand Siècle, and Frédérique Lanoë. La curiosité à l'œuvre: dessins de la donation Pierre Rosenberg. Paris : Le Passage, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 74, fig. 31a
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Clio, Muse of History|url=false|author=Charles Meynier|year=1800|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}