Lot 226 : Gustave Moreau (Paris 1826-1898)

Gustave Moreau - 1826-1898

Auction Location: United States of America - 2005
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Artist or Maker:

Gustave Moreau (Paris 1826-1898)

Title:

Saint Sebastian in an extensive mountain landscape

Description:

Saint Sebastian in an extensive mountain landscape
signed '-Gustave Moreau.-'
pen and brown and black ink, watercolor heightened with white and red
12 x 8 5/8 in. (305 x 220 mm.)

Provenance:

Alfred-Hilarion-Henri Baillehache-Lamotte, according to an inscription 'Gustave Moreau [printed] A. Baillehache Lamotte 127 boulevard Malesherbes Paris [manuscript]' on a label attached to the backing.

Notes:

Paul-Louis Mathieu dates the present watercolor to 1875-80. He notes that from 1869 Moreau painted numerous compositions of the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. The earliest ones, of 1869, depict Saint Sebastian not tied to a tree but being healed by the Blessed Irene. Three versions of that subject are extant, one upright in Saint Louis, Missouri, and two of horizontal format in Neuß in Germany and in a private collection (P.-L. Mathieu, Gustave Moreau, Oxford, 1977, nos. 114-115, 120). Another painting of the theme dateable to 1873, which like the present watercolor was once owned by Baillehache, depicts the Saint with his executioners (P.-L. Mathieu, op. cit., no. 126).
Moreau returned to the theme seven years later, this time depicting a different moment in the martyrdom of the Saint. In these he is tied to a tree with an angel hovering at his side. The prime version, now in the Fogg Museum of Art in Cambridge, was exhibited at the Salon of 1876 (P.-L. Mathieu, op. cit., no. 165). The composition depicts an angel speaking into Saint Sebastian's ear, with Irene at his feet. A number of other pictures show small variations, mainly omitting the figure of Irene, recorded by Mathieu under nos. 166-8. These, all of which are of upright format, represent Sebastian in a posture very close to that in the present watercolor, which omits both Irene and the Angel.
The watercolor shows the Saint after the departure of the archers but before the arrival of Irene, so that Sebastian is left tied to a tree, alone. He is shown on the top of a hill in an alpine landscape across which he gazes in melancholy, unharmed either by the arrows or the ropes that restrain him. In the previous compositions he is shown listening to the 'Voice of God' in the form of an angel; in the present composition Moreau paints him as a hero in isolation.
Saint Sebastian provided one of Moreau's favourite themes. The Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris, which holds almost his entire output of drawings, has no less than 73 drawings of the subject.
Alfred Baillehache (1870-1922), the first known owner of this drawing, was the nephew of Antoine Roux (1833-1913), an early collector of Moreau. Baillehache himself began to collect Moreau's work before 1890, buying directly from the artist. He also prepared a Nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre de Gustave Moreau remis à jour en 1915, a manuscript notebook, now at Brame & Lorenceau.

Paul-Louis Mathieu confirmed the authenticity of this watercolor in a letter dated 20 March 2004. This watercolor, previously unpublished, will be included in Mathieu's addition of the Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre gravé of Gustave Moreau.