Lot 21 : GUSTAVE MOREAU (FRENCH 1826-98) THE DEATH OF SAPPHO

Gustave Moreau - 1826-1898

Auction Location: United States of America - 1995
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Description:

signed l.r.; signed, titled Sapho and indistinctly dedicated A Monsieur Laniel on the reverse, oil on canvas 81 by 62 cm.; 32 by 24 1/2 in. PROVENANCE Laniel Collection; Sale Alphonse Willems, Bruxelles, 12 May 1921, no.38, for 30,000FF. LITERATURE Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau, Sa Vie, Son Oeuvre, Catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre acheve, Bibliotheque des Arts, Paris 1976, p.312, no.140, illustrated; Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gustave Moreau. Les Classiques de l'Art, Flammarion 1991, p.95, no.140, illustrated. Painted circa 1872. Sappho, the celebrated Greek poetess often referred to as "The Tenth Muse", was born on the island of Lesbos in the seventh century B.C. She established in Mytilene a school for young ladies of prominent background, where poetry, music and dance were cultivated under the spell of Aphrodite and the muses. Creator of erotic lyrics, she dedicated an ode to Aphrodite, evoking love and celebrating feminine beauty and grace. In Antiquity her fame rivalled that of Homer. Her tragic end was the result of her unrequited love for Phaon. She conceived such a desperate passion for him, that she threw herself from Mount Leucas, in order to end her misery. The myth of Sappho and her leap into the sea was a popular subject for writers and musicians, as well as painters during the nineteenth century. Moreau was one of the first painters to depict the dead body of Sappho, as opposed to an exclusive representation of her last moment or the actual leap. Sappho was a recurrent source of inspiration in Moreau's work from 1866 (Mathieu, cat. rais. no.1) to 1897. Mathieu lists in his catalogue raisonne three other versions of The Death of Sappho, one in the collection of the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris (33 by 20 cm.), one in the collection of the St-Lo Museum (28.5 by 23.5 cm.), and one currently in the Esnault-Pelterie Collection (40 by 31.8 cm.). There is also a very large oil sketch which is in the Gustave Moreau Museum. The present painting is the largest of all the finished versions of the subject and a rare example remaining in private hands. After exhibiting at the Paris Salons of 1863, 1866 and 1868, Moreau presented Prometheus in 1869, which brought violent opposition from the critics. As a result, Moreau did not exhibit again until 1876. He staved in Paris during the Prussian war and the Paris siege in 1870-71. During these years, when The Death of Sappho was painted, Moreau began to develop a new style, one which is reflected in his well-known composition of Salome dancing before Herod (Salon of 1876). The Death of Sappho comes from different sources of inspiration: Moreau had became a close friend of Chasseriau, who though a pupil of Ingres, was also an admirer of Delacroix, and who attempted to create a synthesis of these two very different styles. Chasseriau and the Romantic movement were two important factors in the development of Moreau's rich, flamboyant style. Moreau started to be interested in the legend of Sappho in 1866-67. His first representation of Sappho shows her at the top of the cliff of Leucas, contemplating with terror the depth of the abyss (Mathieu, cat.rais. no.84). In 1849 Chasseriau had painted Sapho prete a se precipiter du Rocher de Leucade, in a rather sketchy style (Sandoz, cat.rais.128). In a smaller oil (Mathieu, cat.rais. no.104). Moreau represents the poetess falling from the edge of the cliff, keeping the lyre in her arms as an offering to Phaon. This oil can be related to Chasseriau's Sapho se precipitant dans la Mer (Sandoz, cat.rais. no.67), a similar romantic composition but without the dramatic note that Moreau added to his picture. The Death of Sappho clearly shows an artistic turning point for Moreau: the process of change from the illustrator of history to the interpreter of fable. Although he kept away from the Paris Salon at this time, the 1870s were key years when the artist created some of his most important and well-known paintings: Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna (1876, Chicago, Art Institute) and Salome dancing before Herod (1876, Los Angeles, Hammer Collection). In The Death of Sappho, Moreau includes the imagery, colours and composition which he subsequently incorporated in the two pictures mentioned above. He reduced the human figure to a smaller scale to give more emphasis to the landscape, rocks, and fantastic architecture. As in The Death of Sappho, the landscape has widened in Hercules and the Hydra of Lerna. Moreau's use of vibrant colours is also remarkable, and was particularly noted by the critics in the late 1870s. Moreau's knowledge of Japanese art is also evident in this work. This interest in Japan certainly owes something to the critic Ernst Cheneau, who had published an essay on the subject in Les Nations Rivales dans l'Art for the World Exhibition in 1867. The decorative pattern of Sappho's dress in the painting, incorporating blue flowers on a bright red background, was taken from a Japanese book entitled Grand Japon (Musee Gustave Moreau), which is likely to have come into Moreau's possession between 1869 and 1870. (For illustration, see Exhibition Catalogue, Kunsthaus Zurich, 14 March to 25 May 1986, p.148, no.38). The skill and ease with which Moreau combined this Eastern influence with the thoroughly Western Greek legend of Sappho, and his combination of oriental and western motifs in other works, is an important aspect of the artist's style. A compulsive obsession with death is undeniably present in Moreau's work during the time that The Death of Sappho was painted. The experience of the Prussian War, according to some of the artist's letters, played an exceptionally dramatic role in his life and affected his morale for many years to come. This last, sombre fascination, provides this important work with a darker, more metaphysical resonance.