The Gustave Moreau Museum, located in the New Athens district of Paris, is unique: it is the first house-museum desired and designed by the artist himself and has, as a matter of fact, the value of an immersive artistic testament.
Gustave Moreau was born in 1826 to educated parents. The intimate tragedy that his parents go through – the premature loss of their daughter Camille, born in 1827 and deceased at 13 – explains the inconditional love and support towards their only living child.
His father, Louis Moreau, who is an architect, perfects his education by having him read the great classics of ancient literature. His mother, Pauline, very aware of the talent of her son who has been drawing since he was 8 years old, fully supports his artistic career.
Gustave Moreau joins the studio of François-Edouard Picot – one of the decorators of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette church – in 1844 and is admitted to the Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1846, which he leaves two years later. Two trips to Italy and numerous visits to the Louvre enable him to perfect his technique by copying the great masters and immersing himself in their techniques.
In 1852, he is admitted to the official Salon. His father dies in 1862, without seeing the success that his son’s works would soon meet – since his painting “Oedipus and the Sphynx” is acquired by Prince Napoleon in 1864, fully launching his career.
He presents his work again during the official Salon in 1869, but as criticism in the press are particularly severe, he refuses exhibiting there again until 1876 – which does not prevent him from being a prolific artist. He sells little and keeps the right to choose his buyers who are often very wealthy. In the words of Ary Renan, he is “obscurely famous”.
The death of his mother in 1884, then of Alexandrine Dureux in 1890 – “his best and only girlfriend”, plunge him into deep despair. These deaths probably lead to a deep reflection about the transmission of his knowledge and his artworks.
From 1892 until his death, he is a professor at the Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts and receives his students – including Henri Matisse – on Sundays in his mansion. The project to transform his house into a museum, which began in 1891, occupies him until his death in 1898.
We must now mention this very special house located on De la Rochefoucauld street.
Gustave Moreau’s parents, who have already lived in the New Athens district since the 1830s, acquire this mansion in their son’s name in 1853. They live there with him until their respective deaths. Louis Moreau, an architect by profession, himself leads the heavy works aimed at preserving everyone’s independence: the first and second floors are enlarged. The attic of the third floor disappears and is transformed into an art studio for Gustave Moreau, with benefits from an independent access.
A second work campaign takes place in 1895, when Gustave Moreau has fully formed his house-museum project. The remarkable spiral staircase that provides access to the third floor dates from this period and the painter himself fitted out the sentimental museum represented by the private apartments on the first floor.
Gustave Moreau becomes the museographer and curator of his own house-museum. He has time, before his death and despite the disease, to do a first sorting of his paintings, but it was his close friend Henri Rupp who would bring the painter’s house-museum project to fruition.
Universal legatee of Gustave Moreau, Henri Rupp has boundless admiration for the work of his friend, 11 years his senior. It is a long-standing friendship, as evidenced by the fifty familiar letters exchanged between 1857 and 1896. The one who had perhaps a thwarted artistic vocation fights for four years so that the French State finally accepts in 1902 the museum donation – he even waives his share of the inheritance so that the costs are reduced.
Appointed administrator of the museum, Henri Rupp organizes it out according to Gustave Moreau written and oral instructions. The apartments having already been fitted out in a museum style by Gustave Moreau himself, Henri Rupp has the overwhelming task of arranging the ground floor and the studios. He must choose the canvases to frame and exhibit – which is certainly not an easy task given the profusion of artworks that invade the mansion.
He dies in 1918, in the house-museum.
On the ground floor are exhibited paintings, watercolors and drawings.
King David
Sainte Cécile
Fée aux griffons
Gustave Moreau’s reception room mainly presents copies after the masters and plasters, sculptures, ceramics and works that belonged to his father Louis Moreau.
In the dining room are exhibited the ceramics that belonged to the painter’s parents.
In Gustave Moreau’s bedroom, the fireplace is surrounded by portraits of his mother (by Madame Evrard) and himself (by Gustave Ricard).
The boudoir is dedicated to Alexandrine Dureux, “his best and only girlfriend”, who died prematurely in 1890. The relationship between Gustave Moreau and Alexandrine Dureux has always been shrouded in great discretion, even though the painter produced many portraits of his beloved one.
The magnificent spiral staircase that provides access to the third floor dates from 1895.
Let’s talk about the art of Gustave Moreau now. The painter who wanted to produce “an epic art without making a school art” becomes one of the main representatives of symbolism. His art is also imbued with mysticism, as evidenced by the recurrence of certain dreamlike, ancient and religious themes. Several Salomés, Léda, Jupiter and Semélé are executed and live together in the house-museum.
Les Prétendants (“The Suitors”) – The painting represents Odysseus who, on his return to Ithaca, slaughters the suitors who had courted his wife Penelope during his absence
La Licorne
Les Licornes (“The Unicorns”) – It is freely inspired by the “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestries curated by the Cluny museum in Paris
Many paintings are later enlarged, which explains why some are unfinished in places.
Les Argonautes
The style of Gustave Moreau’s drawing is neo-classical: we feel the influence of specific canons from the Paris École des Beaux-Arts. The spiritual dimension of his artworks, where imagination, intuition and divination run, is obvious.
La Naissance de Vénus
Jupiter and Semélé – Sémélé is mortal. Her lover is Jupiter. Mislead by Juno, the wife of Jupiter, Sémélé asks Jupiter to appear in all his divine splendor. Jupiter unwillingly causes Sémélé’s death with his lightning and thunder. Gustave Moreau makes this episode the illustration of the paroxysm of sexual orgasm.
La Vie de l’Humanité
Détail de la Vie de l’Humanité
The treatment of color by Gustave Moreau is halfway between the technique which sees the drawing as the essential preliminary to the application of colors and the impressionist technique which sees only by the lens of colors.
Jupiter and Sémélé
The house-museum is full of artworks – containing nearly 850 paintings, 350 watercolors and 13,000 drawings. Nothing chronological, nothing thematic. Getting lost is an amazing experience.
January 26, 2024
