One of my favorite types of museums is the one located in the former home of the artist. It's great to imagine them working and living there. Gustave Moreau made his home in Paris in the late 19th century. He is one of the masters of the Symbolist movement in art. While we know the Impressionists and Post Impressionists from the latter half of the 19th century, most people know little about the other movements.
Symbolism is a combination of romanticism, mythology, and fantasy. Moreau was a master of this style.
As you can see there is quite a bit of work in this museum. Apparently Moreau was reluctant to participate in exhibitions or sell his work, consequently there are thousands of works housed in this museum. The center image includes a work he intended as an altarpiece for a church (on the pink wall) though it never left the studio. The townhouse was purchased by Moreau's wealthy parents and the three of them lived together for their entire lives. The top two floors were given over to Moreau's studio.
Seeing so much of his work in person was quite an interesting experience. Many of the works familiar to me were there but many that I had never seen before were also on display. It struck me how much of the works seemed unfinished but with magnificent passages of drawing.
"The Triumph of Alexander the Great", 1892, oil on canvas, 61" X 61". Historical subjects, biblical subjects, and mythological subjects. There seem to be hints of hindu imagery in this painting.
"Moses Removing His Sandals Within Sight of the Promised Land," 1854. A word about the horns you see on Moses' head. Moses did not have horns. The biblical text describes "karnot", rays of light emanating from Moses but can also be translated as the horns of an animal. Christian texts translate it that way so you'll see many depictions of Moses with horns coming out of his head though here they look like rays of light rather than actual horns. In Deuteronomy, God told Moses he was preventing him from entering the land. Moreau made up this gesture of humbleness. Moreau considered this painting to be a great meditation on life, aging, and death.
"The Daughters of Thespius", 1853, oil on canvas, 8' X 8'5" is a subject rarely painted because it is considered licentious. In gratitude to Hercules for slaying a menacing lion, Thespius offered Hercules his 50 daughters. Moreau was a bachelor his entire life though he had one long lasting relationship with a woman that lasted over 30 years though they never married or had children. At the time if one did not marry it was assumed they were homosexual but there is no documentation of that in Moreau's case.
"The Unicorns", undated, 45 X 35", 1887, oil on canvas. This painting was inspired by a tapestry of the same theme at the Cluny, a museum in Paris dedicated to Medieval art. This is one of the works Moreau did not want to sell and never finished it even though Baron Rothschild wanted to buy it.
"The Chimeras", 1884, 93" X 80", oil on canvas. This painting remained unfinished due to the death of Moreau's mother. It's magnificent even in its unfinished state. It's based on a painting in the Academia in Venice by Carpaccio. It's a complex allegory of ruin, pain, and death. The following image is a detail of just the section that shows a fantasy of a city in the upper left corner.
Visiting the residence and especially the studio of an artist gives one little hints to their inspirations and thought processes. Moreau had taxidermies of small birds and many engravings of his "heroes" like Van Dyke and Rafael along with prints of some of their works he admired.
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