Moreau, Gustave

Moreau, Gustave (güstäv` môrō`), 1826–98, French painter. He was known for his pictures of the weird and mystical. The recipient of many honors, he refused to sell his paintings except to friends. Moreau was professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, where his pupils included Matisse and Rouault. After his death, his house in Paris (now the Musée Moreau), with his fine art collection, was bequeathed to the nation. Orpheus (Louvre) and Oedipus and the Sphinx (Metropolitan Mus.) are characteristic works.

Bibliography

See studies by J. and J. P. Paladilhe (1972) and G. Lacambre (1999).

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Moreau, Gustave

(born April 6, 1826, Paris, France—died April 18, 1898, Paris) French painter. He developed a distinctive style in the Symbolist mode, becoming known for his erotic paintings of mythological and religious subjects. Such works as Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864) and Dance of Salome (1876) have often been described as decadent. He made a number of technical experiments, including scraping his canvases; his nonfigurative paintings, done in a loose manner with thick impasto, have led some to call him a herald of Abstract Expressionism.