Queer Places:
6 Rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris, France
École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, 14 Rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris, France
Cimetiere de Montmartre,
Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France
Gustave Moreau (6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a major figure in French
Symbolist painting whose main emphasis was the illustration of
biblical and
mythological figures. As a painter, Moreau appealed to the imaginations of
some
Symbolist writers and artists. He is recognized for his works that are
influenced by the
Italian Renaissance and exoticism. His art work was preserved in Paris at
the
Musée Gustave Moreau.
Moreau met Adelaide-Alexandrine Dureux (b. Guise, 8 November 1835) in 1859. The pair's relationship is not well-understood, partly because Moreau burned their correspondence upon Dureux's death. However, Moreau described her as his "best and only friend", and introduced her to drawing. Even though they were together for over 20 years, they never married, for unknown reasons; though some critics have suggested that Moreau might have been homosexual.
He was born in Paris, France, at 6 Rue des Saints-Peres. He came from a middle-class family. His father, Louis Jean Marie Moreau, was an architect for the city of Paris and his mother, née Adele Pauline Desmoutier, was an accomplished musician. Gustave Moreau lived a sheltered life growing up. Having visited Italy at age 15 he began his love for art. At age 18 he entered École des Beaux-Arts to study under the guidance of François-Édouard Picot and left in 1850.[1] He then began to study art under his new mentor Théodore Chassériau, whose work strongly influenced his own. Moreau participated in the Salon for the first time in 1852.
His first painting was a Pietà which is now located in the cathedral at Angoulême. He showed A Scene from the Song of Songs and The Death of Darius in the Salon of 1853. In 1853, he contributed Athenians with the Minotaur and Moses Putting Off his Sandals within Sight of the Promised Land to the Great Exhibition.[3]
Oedipus and the Sphinx, one of his first Symbolist paintings, was exhibited at the Salon of 1864. Moreau quickly gained a reputation for eccentricity. One commentator said Moreau's work was "like a pastiche of Mantegna created by a German student who relaxes from his painting by reading Schopenhauer."[4] The painting currently resides in the permanent collection at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5]
On 28 March 1890, Alexandrine Dureux died. Her death affected Moreau greatly, and his work after this point contained a more melancholic edge. She was buried at the same cemetery that Moreau himself would be laid to rest (see below).
Moreau became a professor at Paris' École des Beaux-Arts in October 1891. Among his many students were fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. Jules Flandrin, Theodor Pallady and Léon Printemps also studied with Moreau.
He was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1875 and was promoted to an Officier de la Legion d'honneur in 1883.
Moreau died of stomach cancer and was buried at the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris in his parent's tomb.
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