His later pastels are particularly sublime, with high chroma and mythical stories, include a drunken man being loaded onto a donkey.
myth
After painting portraits of the Pope during his second visit to Italy, he returns to paint the king’s niece and new bride, Las Meninas, and his last myth.
His talent was spotted early, and he was taken to Rome to study under Poussin in his workshop. He returned to Paris and became the king’s ‘greatest French artist of all time’.
With the exception of his early history paintings and a few portraits of men, his entire career was devoted to painting beautiful women.
Between 1778 and 1815, many narrative painters painted stories from Ossian, based on myths claimed to have been discovered and collected by a Scottish poet, which could well be a hoax. Does it matter?
Both Poussin and Delacroix painted important series just before they died. Others here from Bouguereau, Mucha, and the Japanese Araki.
A common convention in paintings of classical myth, the river god was a bearded old man with a put pouring forth water, often seen with a Naiad, his daughter.
Even Poussin used this narrative form. Here are other example right up to 1947, including paintings by Corot, Munch, Corinth, and others.
Great paintings by Botticelli, Bosch, Titian, Tintoretto, the Carraccis, and others, showing multiplex narrative.
Showing two or more scenes from the same story in a single painting (multiplex narrative) is common, effective, and good art. Examples from Masaccio, Memling, Bosch, and more.
The Eclectic Light Company 