A look back at some of the series and some surprises which you might have missed over the last year.
Moreau
After some false starts, he finally re-established his reputation at the Salon, but was that work a political allegory?
He still couldn’t repeat his earlier success in the years running up to the Franco-Prussian War. But some paintings have been under-appreciated.
Two paintings of the buried dismemberment of a victim: one theatrical narrative, the other a serene reverie of anti-theatrical non-narrative. And an oriental witch.
He took the Salon of 1864 by storm, but was barely noticed with 2 more paintings the following year. Why?
Some stories sound plausible, but are problematic when you try to paint or photograph them. Here’s a good example, with attempted solutions by Reni, Rubens, Moreau, and others.
Three major paintings, each very ambitious, but abandoned, reworked, and abandoned again, give insight into his progress in changing history painting.
Moreau’s extraordinary paintings have been described as Symbolist, Decadent, even Surrealist. They are notoriously difficult to read – here is some help.
First of two parts looking at the many great paintings of Andromeda’s rescue from sacrifice to Cetus.
Byrne-Jones tried to tell the complex story of Perseus and Andromeda in a series of 10 paintings. Here is the story and background.
The Eclectic Light Company 