For the discerning viewer, the subject will not have escaped them. A beautiful tragic story as only the Greeks know how: the myth of Danaides. Numerous 19th-century artists, including the Englishman John Waterhouse and the Frenchmen William Bouguereau and Tony Robert Fleury, portrayed the Danaids in their work.

The Danaids are the 50 daughters of King Danaos. To avoid a war of succession, Danaos agrees to unite his daughters with his brother's sons, also fifty in number.
But an oracle reveals the men's true intention: to kill the Danaids after their marriage. That evening, fearing the prediction, Danaos orders his daughters to kill their husbands.
Precipitated into Tartarus, a region of the Underworld, they are condemned to fill jars (often with holes) for eternity, to fill a well with holes.

Tartarus is described as an arid, misty, black place, with lakes of sulfur, mountainous and rocky, creating a suffocating atmosphere from which no one can escape.

Trouillebert perfectly captures this mood, particularly in his choice of colors: blue, violet and brown. The topography also suggests a lake near the young woman's outstretched body, and the red touches on the left are reminiscent of flames like wildfire.

The bodies of the Danaids are very sketchy, but no less remarkable. The artist chose a different pose for each one.
The Danaïde leaning on the barrel refers to Ariane, presented at the Salon of 1883 (see cat. no. 0082).
Nu allongé de dos (see cat. no. 0129), a figure close to Rodin's nude.
With this figure, we are at the height of despair over the uselessness of the task at hand.

The artist also offers his viewers a very sensual scene, with women in almost erotic positions.