Visiting the Gustave Moreau Museum
Gustave Moreau
In the 19th century, the rise of the Symbolist movement marked a turn to darker, mythic images that dripped with power and hidden meaning.
Moreau and Symbolism
The leading painter in the Symbolist movement was the French artist named Gustave Moreau (1826 to 1898).
His Mansion
His mansion, filled as it is with Gothic decorations and mysterious turns and the artist’s work, is maintained by the French government as a museum dedicated to this towering figure.
We recently visited the Gustave Moreau Museum and reconnected with this often overlooked but wildly imaginative artist. His work is stunning, presenting the viewer with the full weight of the mythology he draws from.
Below, we present a brief biography to better understand the artist Moreau. Then, we’ll give a description of the museum, and we’ll highlight only a couple of the splendors you can find there.
A Brief Biography of Gustave Moreau
Moreau was born on April 6, 1826 in Paris.
His family was wealthy — his father was an architect of some renown, and his mother was a musician. Unfortunately, his father’s political views made him fall in and out of favor with the government, as that era in French politics was marked by dramatic shifts in the political fortunes of those who believed in the Republic, the King, or the Empire.
Nevertheless, the family found time to nurture their child’s artistic proclivities, which were unleashed by the age of eight. Despite poor health, the young Moreau endlessly created art.
His father recognized the importance of art and probably guessed his son’s future vocation, but an emphasis was also placed on a broad education that included Greek, Latin, and the classics. This had an indelible impact on the boy, who would grow up to be one of the most important painters of pagan deities in the 19th century.
In his early teenage years, Moreau’s mother took him to Italy to see her family. It was during that trip, as he drank in the art on display at the museums and galleries of the country, that he committed himself to a life of art.
He trained privately under François-Édouard Picot before enrolling in classes at the École des Beaux-Arts. He left school early, pursuing a style that more and more drifted from the strict academicism of the time.
To finish out his training, Moreau copied the masters at the Louvre and engaged in discussion with contemporary romantic painters active in Paris at the time — including Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Chassériau.
Moreau Finding Success
Into his late twenties and early thirties, Moreau began to exhibit his art widely. And during this time his father got him some commissioned work with the city.
During this time, he also premiered at the Paris Salon.
But tragedy struck when his dear friend Chassériau died. He decided to leave for Italy to take his mind off of his profound grief.
Strangely enough, it is in Italy he met many Parisian artists — like Degas, Delaunay, Chapu, and others. He spent his time studying the Sistine Chapel, the Villa Medici, and the work of Vittore Carpaccio.
-> you can find a copy he did of the Renaissance master’s St. George and the Dragon at the Gustave Moreau Museum
A real turning point in Moreau’s career came in 1864, when he completed Oedipus and the Sphinx, exhibited at the Salon that same year to wide acclaim. Based loosely on Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s treatment of the same subject in 1808, the work confidently announced the arrival of Symbolism as a style.
In this piece, he rejects the rising tides of naturalism and the stodgy academicism that had frigidly reigned over the French art scene. Moreau chose not to innovate but to return, seeking out a more traditional style to present this ancient tale. The effect helped launch French Symbolism.
Moreau’s Legacy
Moreau spent his later years in relative isolation, living with his mother and concerning himself with his painting and reading. He stopped exhibiting his work, focusing on creating pieces in the hermetically sealed world of his studio, which house guests were not even allowed into.
He teached some classes, proving to be a great resource for a new generation of young artists looking to find their own individual voice.
By the end of his life, Moreau had helped carve a unique path away from academicism.
While the Impressionists and other purveyors of Modernism had taken an approach that embraced entirely new styles, Moreau had a more romantic bent. He turned backward, absorbed in the appeal of lost mysteries and the soulful substance of myth.
This path proved less common, but it serves as an essential strand of the story. It is a way we can return to those most ancient legacies that connect us back to the distant past.
The Gustave Moreau Museum
What you notice as soon as you enter the Gustave Moreau Museum is the overwhelming presence of the art. Everywhere you turn there are works by the master. They are crammed onto the walls, smothering the viewer with terrific visions of gods and magic.
It all became official in 1897 when Moreau penned his will, bequeathing his mansion and all of his paintings to the French state. He entrusted all this to the government, “with the express condition to keep this collection forever — this would be my dearest wish — or at least as long as possible, maintaining the integral character that allows the sum of the work and the efforts of the artist during his life to be recognised in perpetuity.”
By the time he’d made everything legally binding, he’d already spent the last two years pursuing the idea of a museum dedicated to his career. In fact, it had become an obsession for the artist at the end of his life. He kept all of his new paintings and acquired many of his previously sold works. He meticulously reworked the canvases. Like a man possessed, he filled his house with the dream-like images that bubbled up in the cauldron of his mind.
The result is a compact but exhaustive experience. It is a museum that acts as a memory palace of the artist’s output. Every subject and theme he handled appears here.
Paintings and sketches fill every conceivable space, telling the tale of a genius that unfurled over so many works of art through his remarkable lifetime.
Visiting the Gustave Moreau Museum
The Gustave Moreau Museum is located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. This is on the right bank of the Seine, in the same neighborhood as the Palais Garnier, the Boulevard Haussman, along with many other famous landmarks. That makes it a great place to spend an entire day of sightseeing.
The House
Because the museum takes place in the house where Moreau and many members of his family lived, there is a special feeling when you enter. Maybe it’s because of the paintings that surround you, but one can almost feel the ghost of the artist pacing through the collection.
The most striking feature of the museum is the twisting staircase on the second floor. It is handsomely crafted and helps make the architecture stand strong. A lesser space would be absolutely blown out by the force of the artwork on display.
The Collection
Among the many treasures of this museum, two stand out as major markers of his career. Let’s look at these in depth.
Tattooed Salomé - 1874 - by Gustave Moreau
Salomé Dancing before Herod (1876) was a major turning point in Moreau’s career, but this early version gives us a taste of how the artist was beginning to change his approach. In this version, the temple of Herod is much dimmer, allowing the body of Salomé to glow and rise out of the surface.
It is both a sign of things to come and a captivating image in its own right, showing Moreau’s ability to draw the viewer into an exotic world.
Jupiter and Semele - 1895 - by Gustave Moreau
This painting is perhaps Moreau’s magnum opus.
It exudes, across every moment of its surface, an undeniably spiritual and mythological force.
And to stand before it, one sees how the enormous scale and endless detail work together to overwhelm the viewer.
In the myth, Jupiter’s human lover Semele asks him to reveal his full grandeur, as she has been tricked by the god’s wife Juno to ask such a question.
When he does as she asks, the awe kills the poor mortal.
The tale allows Moreau to show off his strength — it is tragic, beautiful, and sacred. Not to mention, there is a darkness at the heart of it that seeps through.