Art, literature & historyPhrosine and Mélidore
1797
- Dating
- Exact year
- Held at
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Medium
- Etching, engraving, stipple, and roulette in black on ivory wove paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 21.2 × 14.5 cm (8 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.); Plate: 34.3 × 25.1 cm (13 9/16 × 9 15/16 in.); Sheet: 29.2 × 21.3 cm (11 1/2 × 8 7/16 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1985.42
- Attribution
- By the artist
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
About this artwork
Phrosine and Mélidore — Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. 1797.
Medium: Etching, engraving, stipple, and roulette in black on ivory wove paper. Dimensions: Image: 21.2 × 14.5 cm (8 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.); Plate: 34.3 × 25.1 cm (13 9/16 × 9 15/16 in.); Sheet: 29.2 × 21.3 cm (11 1/2 × 8 7/16 in.).
Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
Prud’hon created this print as an illustration for a 1797 edition of Gentil Bernard’s sensual and tragic poem of the same name. The young Phrosine, at right, falls in love with Mélidore, but her jealous brothers separate the two and banish Mélidore to a life as a hermit on a nearby island. Desperate to see her beloved, Phrosine swims across the channel at night, and collapses, naked, into her lover’s arms.
Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.