This early 20th-century French painting gives us a rather racy retelling of the infamous Greek myth where Zeus, transforms into a swan to seduce (or depending on the version, assault) Leda, queen of Sparta. The artist here skips the Greek armor and grand temples, and instead sets the whole thing by a soft, sun-dappled pond, complete with lush grass, romantic shadows, and, yes, a very forward swan. Painted in oil on canvas, it’s got that impressionist-adjacent brushwork—dreamy, fluid, and decidedly cheeky. The figure of Leda lounges in a pose that’s part pin-up, part Pre-Raphaelite, while the swan—aka Zeus in full feathered regalia—makes his move. It’s signed in the lower left and very much in the spirit of French academic eroticism.
This early 20th-century French painting gives us a rather racy retelling of the infamous Greek myth where Zeus, transforms into a swan to seduce (or depending on the version, assault) Leda, queen of Sparta. The artist here skips the Greek armor and grand temples, and instead sets the whole thing by a soft, sun-dappled pond, complete with lush grass, romantic shadows, and, yes, a very forward swan. Painted in oil on canvas, it’s got that impressionist-adjacent brushwork—dreamy, fluid, and decidedly cheeky. The figure of Leda lounges in a pose that’s part pin-up, part Pre-Raphaelite, while the swan—aka Zeus in full feathered regalia—makes his move. It’s signed in the lower left and very much in the spirit of French academic eroticism.