The Mermaid and the Poet

The Mermaid and the Poet or The Poet and the Mermaid is an oil on canvas oil by Gustave Moreau, intended to serve as a tapestry cardboard for the Goblin Manufacture. Gustave Moreau's only tapestry project, this canvas had aroused the enthusiasm of his contemporaries as soon as he arrived at the factory. It was inspired by a canvas from 1893 but Moreau had made significant changes there such as the addition of borders, the change of background and the change in proportions and attitude of the mermaid, which became more protective than predatory. His style is also in the late works of Gustave Moreau with this dissociation between colors with a very free application and strokes added above forming patterns, as is the case on the tattooed Salome. The work is now kept in the Sainte-Croix Museum in Poitiers.