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拍品專文
While Moreau's training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was deeply rooted in the academic tradition, he quickly distinguished himself as a visionary who boldly stepped across the boundaries of traditional painting to embrace the artistic ideals of the Romantic and Symbolist movement. Standing at the crossroads between academic and avant-garde painting, his resulting work blends a highly sophisticated and complex synthesis of divergent styles that encompass a diverse repertory of subjects.
In the final decades of the 19th Century, the influence of Symbolist art had spread across Europe. Inspired by Celtic and Norse legend, Florentine and Byzantine art, its aim was to find the key to 'anywhere out of the world.' Gustave Moreau stands as perhaps the most famous exponent of this movement against the Realists such as Gustave Courbet. Influenced by his friends Théodore Chassériau and Odilon Redon, Moreau developed what was described as a 'new type of beauty' inspired by the past and the realm of the imagination.
In the 19th Century the characters of William Shakespeare's great dramas and tragedies provided a treasure trove of subject matter for artists to explore. Shakespeare's plays first interested the young Gustave Moreau between 1850 and 1855. At that time his art was influenced by Chassériau and Delacroix, and like them, he executed a number of works inspired by the Bard, among them Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. Most of these works are now in the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris. Since his youth, Moreau had been a close friend of Alfred de Sourdeval, who married Hélèna Fould, a member of the powerful banking family involved in government under Napoleon III. In fact, various members of this family were among Moreau's early patrons. In 1876, Moreau returned to a Shakespearean theme for his patron and friend Hélèna Fould, even though at the time he was deeply involved in Symbolist and Biblical iconography, with paintings such as Salomé (The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles).
Desdemona, the tragic heroine of Shakespeare's Othello, is the innocent victim of her jealous husband. The architecture in Desdémone recalls that of Le Roi David (Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles) painted in 1878 (fig. 1) or the decorative structures found in Sainte Cécile (Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris). Sainte Cécile et les anges de la musique, circa 1875 (fig. 2) is perhaps the closest stylistic comparative, yet of a religious nature. Moreau portrays the saint, also seated on an almost identical throne, as the sole figure in a celestial landscape far from the terrestrial realm. In these works, rather than depicting precise historical references, Moreau wanted to create an atmosphere, often re-using similar decorative elements in very different paintings. He described himself as a 'gatherer of dreams' and even when approaching a subject taken from Shakespeare, it is evident that his imagination has taken flight. As with many of Moreau's compositions, the architectural space is a dazzling concentration of decorative elements and fantastical structures, in this case, an ornate pavilion supported by immense columns. Desdémone is shown as a dreaming princess, seated on a lavishly ornate throne in a sumptuous neo-Byzantine palace whose columns and steeples recall those in Venice where Moreau had spent some time. Richly dressed and covered in ornate jewellery, she leans on a musical instrument related to the 16th Century cittern, whose handle is embellished with a flying bird, a recurring motif in Moreau's work.
Often Moreau sought inspiration for his decorative motifs in books from his own library in this case, Nicolas Xavier Willemin's illustrated Monuments français inédits pour servir L'histoire des arts (Paris, 1839). The extremely detailed rendering, the sumptuousness of the figure and the architecture around her are typical of Moreau's oeuvre in the 1870s. Although Moreau owned a copy of Shakespeare's collected works, it is not clear from this painting exactly which scene he has chosen to depict. If any references to the actual scene portrayed are suggested they are subtle. It is most likely that the young woman's melancholy points to Act IV Scene 3, just before her death, when Desdemona sings the 'Willow Song', often holding a stringed instrument:
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree/Sing
all a green willow Her hand on her bosom,
her head on her knee Sing willow, willow,
willow The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd
her moans Sing willow,willow, willow/
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the
stones:--'
The almost faded flowers on the steps below add a poetic touch that is again taken up in Le Roi David, and must surely foreshadow Desdemona's impending demise. Desdémone is, above all, contemplative and Moreau has quite deliberately transformed her into a otherworldly figure, far beyond the parameters or literary boundaries of her character. Indeed of primary concern to Moreau was the reaction of the spectator - and the conviction that a painting is more free without narrative constraints - capable of evoking an emotional reaction, and thus setting the stage for the viewer's own mystical experience.
We are grateful to Pierre-Louis Mathieu for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
(fig. 1) Gustave Moreau, Le Roi David, 1878, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Los Angeles.
(fig. 2) Gustave Moreau, Sainte Cécile et les anges de la musique, circa 1875, Private Collection.
In the final decades of the 19th Century, the influence of Symbolist art had spread across Europe. Inspired by Celtic and Norse legend, Florentine and Byzantine art, its aim was to find the key to 'anywhere out of the world.' Gustave Moreau stands as perhaps the most famous exponent of this movement against the Realists such as Gustave Courbet. Influenced by his friends Théodore Chassériau and Odilon Redon, Moreau developed what was described as a 'new type of beauty' inspired by the past and the realm of the imagination.
In the 19th Century the characters of William Shakespeare's great dramas and tragedies provided a treasure trove of subject matter for artists to explore. Shakespeare's plays first interested the young Gustave Moreau between 1850 and 1855. At that time his art was influenced by Chassériau and Delacroix, and like them, he executed a number of works inspired by the Bard, among them Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth. Most of these works are now in the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris. Since his youth, Moreau had been a close friend of Alfred de Sourdeval, who married Hélèna Fould, a member of the powerful banking family involved in government under Napoleon III. In fact, various members of this family were among Moreau's early patrons. In 1876, Moreau returned to a Shakespearean theme for his patron and friend Hélèna Fould, even though at the time he was deeply involved in Symbolist and Biblical iconography, with paintings such as Salomé (The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles).
Desdemona, the tragic heroine of Shakespeare's Othello, is the innocent victim of her jealous husband. The architecture in Desdémone recalls that of Le Roi David (Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Los Angeles) painted in 1878 (fig. 1) or the decorative structures found in Sainte Cécile (Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris). Sainte Cécile et les anges de la musique, circa 1875 (fig. 2) is perhaps the closest stylistic comparative, yet of a religious nature. Moreau portrays the saint, also seated on an almost identical throne, as the sole figure in a celestial landscape far from the terrestrial realm. In these works, rather than depicting precise historical references, Moreau wanted to create an atmosphere, often re-using similar decorative elements in very different paintings. He described himself as a 'gatherer of dreams' and even when approaching a subject taken from Shakespeare, it is evident that his imagination has taken flight. As with many of Moreau's compositions, the architectural space is a dazzling concentration of decorative elements and fantastical structures, in this case, an ornate pavilion supported by immense columns. Desdémone is shown as a dreaming princess, seated on a lavishly ornate throne in a sumptuous neo-Byzantine palace whose columns and steeples recall those in Venice where Moreau had spent some time. Richly dressed and covered in ornate jewellery, she leans on a musical instrument related to the 16th Century cittern, whose handle is embellished with a flying bird, a recurring motif in Moreau's work.
Often Moreau sought inspiration for his decorative motifs in books from his own library in this case, Nicolas Xavier Willemin's illustrated Monuments français inédits pour servir L'histoire des arts (Paris, 1839). The extremely detailed rendering, the sumptuousness of the figure and the architecture around her are typical of Moreau's oeuvre in the 1870s. Although Moreau owned a copy of Shakespeare's collected works, it is not clear from this painting exactly which scene he has chosen to depict. If any references to the actual scene portrayed are suggested they are subtle. It is most likely that the young woman's melancholy points to Act IV Scene 3, just before her death, when Desdemona sings the 'Willow Song', often holding a stringed instrument:
The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree/Sing
all a green willow Her hand on her bosom,
her head on her knee Sing willow, willow,
willow The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd
her moans Sing willow,willow, willow/
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the
stones:--'
The almost faded flowers on the steps below add a poetic touch that is again taken up in Le Roi David, and must surely foreshadow Desdemona's impending demise. Desdémone is, above all, contemplative and Moreau has quite deliberately transformed her into a otherworldly figure, far beyond the parameters or literary boundaries of her character. Indeed of primary concern to Moreau was the reaction of the spectator - and the conviction that a painting is more free without narrative constraints - capable of evoking an emotional reaction, and thus setting the stage for the viewer's own mystical experience.
We are grateful to Pierre-Louis Mathieu for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
(fig. 1) Gustave Moreau, Le Roi David, 1878, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Los Angeles.
(fig. 2) Gustave Moreau, Sainte Cécile et les anges de la musique, circa 1875, Private Collection.