A prodigious technician with an active and often fervid imagination, French artist Gustave Moreau produced thousands of works paintings, drawings, watercolors, sketches during the course of his 50-year career, roughly from the mid-19th century to its end. His elaborate compositions and glowing colors lent a dreamlike quality to the world of epic tales he portrayed in his early paintings a world inhabited by figures and settings taken from the Bible, and from Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Oriental mythology. "I have never looked for dream in reality or reality in dream," he wrote. "I have allowed my imagination free play, and I have not been led astray by it." His later paintings with their loose, expressive brushwork and thick impasto evoke emotional response through the use of color, line and form and are considered by some to be heralds of Abstract Expressionism.
A self-described "assembler of dreams," Moreau was greatly admired by Proust. Later, his strange and dramatic work caught the attention of André Breton, the high-priest theoretician of Surrealism. A generation of Symbolist painters and writers were also influenced by his art, as were the radical group of artists known as the Fauves. Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse both studied with Moreau and praised him for setting them free. "He didn't set his pupils on the right road," Matisse said. "He took them off it. He made them uneasy.... He didn't show us how to paint; he roused our imagination."
Now a new show "Gustave Moreau: Between Epic and Dream" on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through August 22, brings the work of this long out-of-fashion artist, who was little known in the United States, back into the spotlight. Organized jointly by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Metropolitan, the show includes many works from the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris.
Mtaalamu wa sanaa na mchoraji wa kisasa, Gustave Moreau aliunda maelfu ya michoro, michoro, michoro ya maji, na michoro katika kipindi cha kazi yake ya miaka 50, kuanzia katikati ya karne ya 19 hadi mwisho. Mchoro wake wa rangi na rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi ya rangi. "Sijawahi kutafuta ndoto katika hali halisi au hali halisi katika ndoto", akaandika. "Nimewapa mawazo yangu uhuru wa kucheza, na sijapotoshwa nayo". Picha zake za baadaye na brushwork yao ya wazi, ya kuelezea na impasto nzito huamsha majibu ya kihisia kupitia matumizi ya rangi, mstari na fomu na huchukuliwa na wengine kuwa watangazaji wa Abstract Expressionism. Moreau, ambaye alijitaja kuwa "mkusanyaji wa ndoto", alipendwa sana na Proust. Baadaye, kazi yake ya ajabu na yenye kuvutia ilivutia André Breton, kasisi mkuu wa nadharia ya Surrealism. "Wanafalsafa wa sanaa ya ""Fauvis"" waliathiri pia kizazi cha wasanii na waandishi wa Symbolist, na pia kikundi cha wasanii wa ""Fauvis"" waliojulikana kama ""Fauvists.""" Georges Rouault na Henri Matisse wote wawili walijifunza na Moreau na kumsifu kwa kuwaweka huru. "Hakuwaelekeza wanafunzi wake kwenye njia sahihi", Matisse akasema. "Akawaondoa juu yake. Aliwafanya wasijihisi vizuri.... Hakutuonyesha jinsi ya kupaka rangi; alichochea mawazo yetu". "Gustave Moreau: Kati ya Epic na Ndoto, ""Gustave Moreau: Kati ya Epic na Ndoto,"" ni maonyesho ya kisanii ya kisanii ya kisasa ya Metropolitan, ambayo inaonyesha kazi ya mchoraji wa kisasa wa kisasa na wa kisasa wa kisasa." Maonyesho hayo, yaliyoandaliwa na Taasisi ya Sanaa ya Chicago, Réunion des Musées Nationaux na Metropolitan, yanajumuisha kazi nyingi kutoka kwa Jumba la Makumbusho la Gustave Moreau huko Paris.