Gustave MoreauFrancia, 1826–1898The Infant Moses
Sul dipinto
Paris hosted the 1878 Exposition universelle, or world’s fair, to celebrate France’s recovery after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. For the event, Gustave Moreau submitted a cycle of biblically themed paintings to reflect on the nation’s renewal. The series, which included this work as well as Jacob and the Angel (1874–78; also in Harvard’s collection) and David (1878), marked three stages of human life. Here Moreau celebrates the anticipation and promise associated with childhood: Moses, recognized by the rays emanating from his forehead, floats in his basket on the Nile, surrounded by the ruins of ancient Egypt. In a written commentary Moreau suggested the prophet’s enlightenment, noting the contrast between “this people of mummies, sphinxes, and gods with staring eyes and unmoving gaze” and “this fine human fruit full of sap and life.”
Harvard Art Museums
Scheda
- Numero di inventario
- 1943.262
Nel frattempo, nella vita di Gustave Moreau
Tutta la vita1859–1888 · Luogo di lavoro
Paris
1870–1875
Years without exhibiting: renewing his art
Disturbed by criticism that his work had become formulaic, Moreau stopped exhibiting for a few years and concentrated on renewing his art.
18 settembre 1875 · Premio
Knight of the Legion of Honour
1876
Return to the Salon: “Salome”
After the break Moreau returned to the Salon. That year he completed “Salome Dancing before Herod”, which announced the more painterly style that would characterize his later works.
1878
“Phaeton” at the World’s Fair stuns Redon
At the 1878 World’s Fair Moreau’s watercolour “Phaeton” so struck Odilon Redon that he wrote of its power to renew old art. Redon, like many critics of the time, saw Moreau’s chief merit in giving traditional painting a new direction, building a bridge between past and future.
1880
His last exhibition: “Helen” and “Galatea”
In 1880 Moreau took part in an exhibition for the last time, showing “Helen at the Walls of Troy”, in which the woman appears as a depraved creature guilty of war and the death of men, and “Galatea”, whose heroine is an object of desire on which the huge eye of the cyclops in love is vainly fixed.
