To capture the inner flashes . . .

Today is the birthday of Gustave Moreau (April 6, 1826 – April 18, 1898), a French Symbolist painter, sculptor and watercolorist famous for his illustration of biblical and mythological figures.

He preferred to paint mythological subjects, symbolist work that is thought to be a forerunner of surrealism.

Gustave Moreau was the recipient of many honors, yet refused to sell his paintings except to friends. In 1892, he was given a painting professor position at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where his pupils included Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. After his death, his house in Paris (now the Musée Moreau), with his fine art collection, was bequeathed to the nation.

"I believe neither in what I touch nor what I see. I only believe in what I do not see, and solely in what I feel." - Gustave Moreau

"I have never looked for dream in reality or reality in dream. I have allowed my imagination free play, and I have not been led astray by it." - Gustave Moreau

The Rape of Europa 1869

Gustave Moreau

Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

"No one could have less faith in the absolute and definitive importance of the work created by man, because I believe that this world is nothing but a dream." - Gustave Moreau

"I am less concerned with expressing the motions of the soul and mind than to render visible, so to speak, the inner flashes of intuition which have something divine in their apparent insignificance . . ." - Gustave Moreau

Moreau image source (1)