He died a century ago, a succession of brilliant and very successful paintings behind him. First of two parts in retrospect.
painting
Never mock Cupid. As Apollo found it, he’ll get his own back in the cruellest of ways.
In these last 2 years, his paintings reached a new peak in quantity and innovative exploration of colour and texture.
He divided his time between the bustle of Berlin and the family’s garden of Eden by the lake and mountains.
Exploring different verbal and visual accounts of the story of the murder of Astyanax during the fall of Troy.
You’d think a painting of him in battle would be ideal, not one of him being dragged from a brothel.
The Greek version of the Flood myth is quite different, and calls on sculpture for another metamorphosis. It also gives rise to the fearsome Python.
The war years started with buoyant patriotism, but ended in depression. He was saved by a chalet in Bavaria, and his wonderful landscapes.
He recovered some of his youthful vision in the 1860s, when he painted rich rustic views lit by the setting sun.
Did Moreau succeed in changing history painting, or should his works remain obscure, a minor cul-de-sac in art history?
The Eclectic Light Company 