Goyet found success with genre paintings that depicted historical figures, or that captured moments from daily life in a historical setting. A retrospective written in 1881 cited Goyet's works at the Salon of 1831 as his most notable exhibition. These included three "very important works,""Les Artistes de Saône-et-Loire depuis 30 Ans (1849-1879)," Annales de L'Académie de Macon, series II, tome III, 1881, pp. 47-48. Marie Louise d’Orléans, reine d’Espagne et Luc Giordano; La Reine Christine de Suède el le Guerchin; and Héloïse et Abailard, depicting the famous lovers as "Héloïse, seduced by the sweet voice and the eloquence of Abailard, listens with all her soul."Explication des Ouvrages de Peinture, Sculpture, Gravure, Lithographie et Architecture des Artistes Vivans, Exposés au Musée Royal, 1831, p. 76. This small oil on copper painting, exhibited at the Galerie LebrunExplication des ouvrages de peinture et sculpture, exposés au profit de la caisse ouverte pour l'extinction de la mendicité—Galerie Lebrun, 1829 p. 17.Journal des Artistes, 5 June 1831, p. 423. and at the Musée Colbert in 1829Catalogue des tableaux et objets d'art exposés dans le Musée Colbert pendant le mois de Novembre 1829, p. 22. before its inclusion at the Salon, was made into a lithograph by ,L'Iconographie, 28 February 1842, p. 144. and was later selected by Goyet as his contribution to the Exposition d'Amiens in 1845.Journal des Artistes, 1845, p. 280. The painting may be affiliated with the troubadour style, with its romantic nostalgia for the Middle Ages in France. Its location and appearance long unknown to scholars, Goyet's Héloïse et Abailard was rediscovered at an auction in Oakland, California, in 2020.
