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Gustave Moreau

Born – Paris, France 1826

Died – Paris, France 1898

 

Gustave Moreau lived the life of a recluse, secluded from the outside world in his Montmartre studio. An academic painter, he believed that art should not merely describe the material world which he saw as being unduly concerned with the idea of progress. He painted elaborate biblical and mythological fantasies which, due to their displacement in time, seemed rather remote and uninteresting. Salomé Dancing Before Herod was his greatest success. It was greatly admired by the novelist Huysmans for its decadent mood. Exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1876, the painting subscribes entirely to Moreau’s view that “I believe only in what I do not see and solely in what I feel.” He paints the scene with an obsessive, descriptive attention to detail, the rich colours and intricate surface giving the work symbolic rather then literal truth. He was associated with the Symbolic movement and also had an influence on Surrealists. Between 1892 and 1898, Moreau established a reputation as an intelligent and sympathetic teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he counted Rouault and Matisse among his pupils. His greatest legacy, most obviously apparent in his watercolours, was his jewel-like use of colour.

 

Masterpieces:

• Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna
• The Unicorns

Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.

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