Poet and Satyrs

1859–1888 · Virkested

Paris

1888

Travel: Belgium

1888

Travel: Netherlands

28 March 1890

The death of Alexandrine Dureux

Alexandrine Dureux died on 28 March 1890 after five months of deteriorating health, and Moreau was at her bedside. He bought back from her heirs the watercolours he had given her and some furniture, placing them in a room of his house in her memory, and designed her tombstone himself, engraved with their interlaced initials. Both deaths reinforced his isolation, and his work took on an even greater melancholic edge.

October 1891 – January 1892

Takes over Delaunay’s studio at the École des Beaux-Arts

On his deathbed Élie Delaunay asked Moreau to succeed him and direct one of the school’s main ateliers. Moreau reluctantly took the class on a temporary basis in October 1891, but in January 1892, at the age of sixty-five, he accepted the appointment of professor and atelier director.

1895

Turns his townhouse into a museum

After finishing “Jupiter and Semele” Moreau began his last great project, a museum in his own townhouse, to make his art accessible to all and to ensure it would be preserved for future generations. He sold few works in his lifetime: only three were bought by French museums and none by foreign ones.