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Dimensions: 50 by 34.5cm., 19¾ by 13½in.

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Provenance: Adrien Marx (commissioned from the artist)
Baillehache Collection (purchased in 1898)
Louis Mante
Sale: Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Vente Mante, 28 November 1956, lot 8, as Dame à la Licorne
Comtesse de Casteja
Sale: Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle appartenant à la comtesse de Castéja, 20 October 1983, lot 21
Acquired by the present owner in 1996

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Exhibited: Paris, 1906, no. 77 (Collection Louis Mante)

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Literature: G. Desvallières, L'oeuvre de Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1913, no. 21, illustrated
R. von Holten & J.J. Pauvert, L'art fantastique de Gustave Moreau, 1960, no. 25, illustrated
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Complete edition of the finished paintings, watercolours and drawings, Paris, 1976, p. 347, no. 330, illustrated
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1991, no. 227, p. 103, illustrated
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau, Paris-New York, 1994, p. 165
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: L'assembleur des reves, Paris, 1998, p. 130
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Monographie et Nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre achevé, Paris, 1998, pp. 181 & 393, no. 370, illustrated

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Notes: PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
Painted circa 1885, in the present work a young pubescent girl, naked but for a regal red cape and wondrous be-crowned beret, strokes the head of a unicorn that sits docilely by her side. A symbol of both strength and purity as well as man's submissiveness to woman, according to legend only virgins were able to approach unicorns.

Moreau's interest in the subject was inspired by the medieval tapestries of unicorns in the Musée de Cluny, in particular the fifteenth century Tenture de la Dame à la licorne: Le Toucher, acquired by the museum in 1882. Moreau incorporated the form of the unicorn into Le lion amoreux, one of his illustrations for the fables of La Fontaine, and further developed the theme in another oil Les Licornes of 1885-90 (fig. 1). Moreau intended La Licorne to be the pendant to La Chimère (fig. 2), the purity of the former contrasting with the corrupt femme fatale symbolism of the latter.

While Moreau's training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was deeply rooted in the academic tradition, he quickly distinguished himself as a visionary who boldly stepped across the boundaries of traditional painting to embrace the artistic ideals of the Romantic and Symbolist movements. Standing at the crossroads between academic and avant-garde painting, his works are a highly sophisticated and complex synthesis of divergent styles that encompass a diverse repertoire of subjects.

According to Douglas Druick, 'Moreau explored the theme of humankind's potential for good and evil, enlightenment and chaos, employing symbolic contrasts between light and dark, beauty and monstrosity... Moreau wedded the insights of ancient myths with those of Darwinist explanation to convey the epic battle between the body's basest passions and the soul's loftiest aspirations.' (Genevieve Lacambre, Larry Feinberg, Marie Laure de Contenson & Douglas Druick, Gustave Moreau, Between Epic and Dream, 1999, p. 36).

Fig. 1: Gustave Moreau, Les Licornes, 1885-90, Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris
digi ref 358D08101

Fig. 2: Gustave Moreau, La Chimère, 1867, Private Collection
digi ref 360D08101