Ten creepy paintings from famous artists that not everyone wants to hang in their home. Ten creepy paintings from famous artists that not everyone wants to hang in their home Titian “The Punishment of Marsyas”

In the myths about the labors of Hercules, the eighth task that the hero must complete is to steal the mares of Diomedes, king of Thrace. It would seem that horse theft should be a simple question for the son of god, but these were horses that ate people. Not knowing that these horses are mad, Hercules leaves them with his companions, whom the bloodthirsty animals killed and ate.

As punishment for Diomedes for raising such monsters, Hercules fed him to his own horses. This plot formed the basis of Moreau’s painting, in which you can see Hercules carefreely looking at the horses’ “revenge” on Diomedes. Moreau is famous for his symbolic paintings of biblical and mythological subjects, but none are as bloody as this one.

2. "Nightmare". Henry Fuseli

As soon as Fuseli presented this painting to the public, it became famous for demonstrating “the frightening effect of curses on people’s dreams.” The painting became so popular that Fuseli painted several versions of it. The main plot is a demonstration of a person's dream and the nightmares that he sees in it.

On this canvas you can see an incubus, a male demon who seduces women during sleep. He sits on the chest of a sleeping woman and causes her to have overtly sexual dreams. However, the popularity of the painting caused many contradictions (after all, the era was not so “free” in terms of expressing one’s desires). As a result, the canvas was used in many satirical images Georgian and Victorian eras.

Unfortunately, few people today know about the Austrian illustrator Alfred Kubin. He worked primarily in the style of Symbolist and Impressionist graphics, and was also famous for his watercolors and ink and pencil drawings. He has little work done oil paints, but this example perfectly conveys Cuban's gloomy style. In fact, you can find few paintings that convey a gloomy and depressive mood so well. Interestingly, the Nazis called Kubin's work "degenerate."

4. “Judith beheading Holofernes.” Artemisia Gentileschi

This picture very reminiscent of Caravaggio's work, but less known. Artemisia Gentileschi herself led exciting life, and some of the character traits of the biblical Judith can be seen in the artist herself.

The painting, whose style largely coincides with Caravaggio's naturalism and violence, features an even more realistic beheading scene. In the case when in Caravaggio's paintings need to look for some hidden meaning, in Gentileschi it is clearly visible at first glance. Holofernes's face in this version suggests that he clearly fell into a stupor in a drunken state, not understanding what was happening.

5. “The hands resist him.” Bill Stoneham

The painting became an internet sensation in 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay. The sellers claimed that the children in the painting moved at night and sometimes came out of the painting. Even sites dedicated to the painting began to appear on the Internet, which showed some close-up photographs emphasizing creepy stories associated with the canvas.

Both children are missing eyes, but perhaps the most disturbing feature of the painting is the tiny hands pressed against the glass of the door behind the children. The artist was commissioned to paint a continuation of this painting, showing the same characters several decades later.

6. “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Ivan Albright

Ivan Albright painted in the style of “magic realism,” but not all of his paintings are full of fantastic whims. Magic realism in art can best be described as stylistic realism, intended to convey the "inner truth" of an object to the viewer.

This style is perfect for the plot of this picture. In Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the sins young man were reflected in his image, but not in his character. This painting was commissioned for the MGM film in 1945 based on Wilde's book. Over the course of the film, the portrait wears out, as does the young man's soul, so Albright was hired to make changes to his painting during filming.

7. "Pogo the Clown" John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was one of the most famous serial killers in American history, which killed at least 33 young men and teenagers. After his arrest for these crimes, Gacy took up art and painted in prison until his execution. This picture shows Gacy himself in the image of his alter ego - the clown Pogo.

It was dressed as Pogo that Gacy usually entertained children in the wild. This is certainly not an example of great art, and much of the horror of this picture is actually based on the knowledge of Gacy's crimes. It's worth paying attention to the pointed corners of Gacy's mouth makeup. Most clowns avoid this because it tends to increase any person's latent coulrophobia (fear of clowns).

Edvard Munch's The Scream is probably one of the most famous expressionist paintings, and it is also one of the most disturbing. Its central figure is seen as an expression of existential angst that everyone must come to terms with. Considering the popularity of this picture, perhaps it’s not even worth describing it in detail.

9. “Three studies for the figures at the foot of the crucifixion.” Francis Bacon

Bacon is famous for his depressive art and triptychs. The 1944 triptych “Three Studies for Figures at the Foot of a Crucifixion” is considered the first large artistic work Bacon. These figures symbolize many sources, such as the Furies from Greek myths, characters from Grunewald's triptych, and even the film Battleship Potemkin.

The gaunt look on their faces makes one think that the crowd is mocking Jesus on the way to his execution. Unlike many of Bacon's works, which were stolen and bought up in secret by billionaires, this triptych can be seen in the British Tate Gallery. Bacon later returned to this work and painted a large copy of it.

10. "Guernica" Pablo Picasso

On April 26, 1937, the German Condor Legion, a volunteer unit of the Luftwaffe, under the command of Spanish nationalists bombed the city of Guernica, completely destroying it. The story of the Germans breaking their pact of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War was published in the press almost immediately.

The Spanish Republicans commissioned Picasso to paint a mural of the bombing of the city for the World's Fair in Paris. Since its first showing, the painting has become a symbol of the cruelty and suffering of war. Perhaps the most striking part of the work is the figure on the far left - a screaming woman cradling a dead child.

The world of painting is full of truly beautiful canvases, looking at which you want to live and enjoy the world around you. Great artists knew a lot about beauty and tried to convey it to everyone accessible ways. It is all the more surprising to come across such pictures that make your blood run cold and make you want to constantly look around in alarm. You can’t help but wonder what was going on in the creator’s head when he created this over many months. Why did he decide to convey in his work not the triumph of life, but the horrors of death, war and vices. There are several paintings that once you see, you will not be able to get rid of the icy horror for some time.

Johann Heinrich Fussli "Nightmare"

Probably "Nightmare" is the most accurate name for what is depicted in the picture. The demonic figure on the chest of a sleeping woman very well conveys the feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night from a terrible dream and cannot come to your senses for a long time.



Hieronymus Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights"

The picture itself is frightening, and the fact that it warns us about the terrible and unknown that can happen if we succumb to the temptation of sin. Bosch was a great master of frightening his viewer, but this masterpiece of painting does not just frighten, but directly threatens everyone who doubts the existence of hell.



Gustav Moreau "Diomedes Devoured by His Horses"

We all remember myths and legends Ancient Greece, so, this picture is nothing more than an illustration of one of the 12 labors of Hercules. Horses devouring their master are formidable and uncontrollable animals that Hercules needed to perform his next feat.



Rubens "Saturn Devouring His Son"

This is another depiction of a popular theme in Greek and Roman mythology. Saturn, because of a prophecy that his children would overthrow his power, simply devoured each of his sons after birth. Interestingly, not only Rubens loved this plot and depicted it in one of his works.



Artemisia Gentileschi "Judith Beheading Holofernes"

This painting actually celebrates heroism, not self-mutilation. A brave widow named Judith kills Holofernes, the Assyrian general who threatened to destroy her hometown. Judging by the plot depicted, Judith did not have the skills to cut off heads because her victim woke up in the middle of the process.



Hans Memling "Hell, left panel of the triptych "Earthly Vanities"

This painting is only part of a large triptych, warning us against sins and temptations. If we briefly voice the artist’s main idea, perhaps we can say “Remember death.” Will you forget about this after seeing Memling’s painting?



Francis Bacon "Study for a Portrait of Innocent X"

To be fair, the artist had a normal attitude towards Pope Innocent. It’s just that in the sketch he tried to test colors and rethink famous story Diego Velazquez, who also portrayed this famous historical figure. However, Bacon, in his own opinion, did not succeed. He later called attempts to paint a portrait of the pope stupid.



Titian "The Punishment of Marsyas"

The most terrible detail in this picture is not even the process of flaying the satyr named Marsyas, who was punished by Apollo for losing an argument. Look at this little dog, which is licking the blood flowing from the unfortunate vanquished man, who, by the way, is still alive and endures these torments while conscious.



William Bouguereau "Dante and Virgil in Hell"

And again before us is hell, beloved by artists of all times and peoples. This time - the eighth circle from Dante's Divine Comedy. The writer, together with the ancient Roman poet Virgil accompanying him, watches two punished sinners.



Francisco Goya "Saturn Devouring His Son"

Here is another image of Saturn eating his children. Written famous amateur Goya's dark subjects, he looks even more scary and evokes truly animal horror. All famous horror films are nothing compared to Goya’s paintings, this has long been known. But this plot surpassed all the worst fears.



Salvator Rosa "The Temptations of St. Anthony"

This is one of many paintings that were inspired by the legend of St. Anthony. This monk went to live in the desert to be closer to God. However, even there he could not avoid all sorts of temptations and machinations of the Devil. Salvator Rosa saw it his way.



Francisco Goya "Disasters of War"

Again Goya, whose paintings, of course, need to be dosed, because there is a risk of going crazy. "Disasters of War" is just one of 82 illustrations on the theme. If you look at this nightmare, you can see that these are the corpses of castrated men, the head of one of whom is hanging on a tree. Goya tried to show that war is the most inhuman thing that can happen to a person.



Theodore Gericault "Severed Heads"

Gericault simply loved to draw dead people. He even collaborated with hospitals and morgues to be able to study the processes that happen to people after death. In his studio he watched the decomposition various parts body and sketched it all so that we could now look and be horrified.



Hans Rudi Giger "Necron IV"

The artist Giger suffered from nightmares for many years, and his painting was the only way to somehow rethink and survive this. Screenwriter Dan O'Brannon, after seeing Giger's paintings, was inspired to create the film "Alien" and even hired the artist to create sketches.



Salvador Dali "The Face of War"

Another variation on the theme of the horrors of war, with the help of which artists are trying to convince humanity that there is nothing worse. And looking at this picture, we understand that this is really so. Salvador Dali painted this painting after the end Civil War in Spain.

For the sake of art Gustave Moreauvoluntarily isolated himself from society. The mystery with which he surrounded his life turned into a legend about the artist himself.

Life of Gustave Moreau (1826 - 1898), like his work, seems completely divorced from reality French life 19th century Having limited his social circle to family members and close friends, the artist devoted himself entirely to painting. Having a good income from his canvases, he was not interested in changes in fashion on the art market. The famous French symbolist writer Huysmans very accurately called Moreau “a hermit who settled in the very heart of Paris.”

Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864)

Moreau was born on April 6, 1826 in Paris. His father, Louis Moreau, was an architect whose responsibility was to maintain the city's public buildings and monuments. The death of Moreau's only sister, Camille, brought the family together. The artist's mother, Polina, was wholeheartedly attached to her son and, having become a widow, did not part with him until her death in 1884.

WITH early childhood parents encouraged the child’s interest in drawing and introduced him to classical art. Gustave read a lot, loved to look at albums with reproductions of masterpieces from the Louvre collection, and in 1844, after graduating from school, he received a bachelor's degree - a rare achievement for young bourgeois. Pleased with his son's success, Louis Moreau assigned him to the studio of the neoclassical artist François-Edouard Picot (1786-1868), where the young Moreau received the necessary training to enter the School of Fine Arts, where he successfully passed the exams in 1846

St. George and the Dragon (1890)

Griffin (1865)

The training here was extremely conservative and mainly consisted of copying plaster casts from ancient statues, drawing male nudes, studying anatomy, perspective and the history of painting. Meanwhile, Moreau became increasingly fascinated by the colorful paintings of Delacroix and especially his follower Theodore Chasserio. Having failed to win the prestigious Prix de Rome (the School sent the winners of this competition at its own expense to study in Rome), Moro left the school in 1849.

The young artist turned his attention to the Salon, an annual official exhibition that every beginner sought to attend in the hope of being noticed by critics. The paintings presented by Moreau at the Salon in the 1850s, for example, "Song of Songs" (1853), revealed a strong influence of Chasserio - executed in a romantic manner, they were distinguished by piercing color and frantic eroticism.

Moreau never denied that he owed a lot of his work to Chasserio, his friend who died early (at the age of 37). Shocked by his death, Moreau dedicated the painting “Youth and Death” to his memory.

Salome Dancing Before Herod (1876)

However, admirers of Moreau's work perceived his new works as a call for liberation of imagination. He became the idol of symbolist writers, including Huysmans, Lorrain and Péladan. However, Moreau did not agree with the fact that he was classified as a Symbolist; in any case, when in 1892 Péladan asked Moreau to write a laudatory review of the Rose and Cross Symbolist salon, the artist resolutely refused

Meanwhile, Moro’s unflattering fame did not deprive him of private customers, who continued to buy his small canvases, usually painted on mythological and religious subjects. Between 1879 and 1883 he created four times more paintings than in the previous 18 years (the most profitable for him was a series of 64 watercolors created based on La Fontaine’s fables for the Marseilles rich man Anthony Roy - for each watercolor Moreau received from 1000 to 1500 francs). And the artist’s career took off.

Odysseus beats the suitors (detail)

Moreau himself did not want to admit that he was either unique, or out of touch with the times, and, moreover, incomprehensible. He saw himself as an artist-thinker, but at the same time, which he especially emphasized, he put color, line and form in the first place, and not verbal images. Wanting to protect himself from unwanted interpretations, he often accompanied his paintings detailed comments and sincerely regretted that “until now there has not been a single person who could seriously talk about my painting.”

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra (1876)

Moreau always paid special attention to the works of old masters, those same “old wineskins” into which, according to Redon’s definition, he wanted to pour his “new wine”. Long years Moreau studied the masterpieces of Western European artists, and primarily representatives Italian Renaissance, however, the heroic and monumental aspects interested him much less than the spiritual and mystical side of the work of his great predecessors.

Moro had the deepest respect for Leonardo da Vinci, who in the 19th century. considered a forerunner European romanticism. Moreau's house kept reproductions of all Leonardo's paintings presented in the Louvre, and the artist often turned to them, especially when he needed to depict a rocky landscape (as, for example, in the paintings "Orpheus" and "Prometheus") or effeminate men who resembled those created by Leonardo image of Saint John. “I would never have learned to express myself,” Moreau will say, already a mature artist, “without constant meditation before the works of geniuses:” Sistine Madonna"and some of Leonardo's creations."

Thracian girl with the head of Orpheus on his lyre (1864)

Moreau's admiration for the masters of the Renaissance was characteristic of many artists of the 19th century. At that time, even such classic artists as Ingres were looking for new, not typical classical painting plots, and the rapid growth of the colonial French empire aroused the interest of viewers, especially creative people, in everything exotic.

Peacock Complaining to Juno (1881)

The archives of the Gustave Moreau Museum allow us to judge the incredible breadth of the artist’s interests - from medieval tapestries to antique vases, from Japanese prints on wood to erotic Indian sculpture. Unlike Ingres, who limited himself exclusively historical sources, Moreau boldly combined on canvas images taken from different cultures and eras. His"Unicorns", for example, seem to have been borrowed from a gallery of medieval paintings, and the painting “Apparition” is a real collection of oriental exoticism.

Unicorns (1887-88)

Moreau deliberately sought to saturate his paintings as much as possible with amazing details, this was his strategy, which he called “the necessity of luxury.” Moreau worked on his paintings for a long time, sometimes for several years, constantly adding more and more new details that multiplied on the canvas, like reflections in mirrors. When the artist no longer had enough space on the canvas, he hemmed additional strips. This happened, for example, with the painting “Jupiter and Semele” and with the unfinished painting “Jason and the Argonauts”.

Diomedes Devoured by His Horses (1865)

However, Moreau’s connections with modernism are much more complex and subtle than it seemed to the decadents who adored his work. Moreau's students at the School of Fine Arts, Matisse and Rouault, always spoke of their teacher with great warmth and gratitude, and his workshop was often called the “cradle of modernism.” For Redon, Moreau's modernism lay in his "following his own nature." It was this quality, combined with the ability for self-expression, that Moreau tried in every possible way to develop in his students. He taught them not only the traditional basics of craftsmanship and copying Louvre masterpieces, but also creative independence - and the master’s lessons were not in vain. Matisse and Rouault were among the founders of Fauvism, the first influential artistic movement of the 20th century based on classical ideas about color and form. So Moreau, who seemed like an inveterate conservative, became godfather a direction that opened new horizons in 20th century painting.

The last romantic of the 19th century, Gustave Moreau, called his art “passionate silence.” In his works, a sharp color scheme was harmoniously combined with the expression of mythological and biblical images. “I never looked for dreams in reality or reality in dreams. I gave freedom to the imagination,” Moreau liked to repeat, considering fantasy one of the most important forces of the soul. Critics saw him as a representative of symbolism, although the artist himself repeatedly and decisively rejected this label. And no matter how much Moreau relied on the play of his imagination, he always carefully and deeply thought through the color and composition of the canvases, all the features of lines and shapes and was never afraid of the most daring experiments.

Self-Portrait (1850)

Typically, painters create paintings that you want to look at again and again, admiring the beauty conveyed on the canvas. But not all canvases outstanding artists evoke only positive emotions. In museum collections there are also paintings that, after viewing, simply make your blood run cold and leave you with an unpleasant feeling of unease. This review contains masterpieces of world painting that are impossible to look at without shuddering.

Artemisia Gentileschi "Judith Beheading Holofernes"

Heinrich Fussli "Nightmare"

Gustav Moreau "Diomedes Devoured by His Horses"

Hieronymus Bosch "The Garden of Earthly Delights"

Peter Paul Rubens "Saturn Devouring His Son"

Hans Memling "Earthly Vanities"

William Bouguereau "Dante and Virgil in Hell"

Francisco Goya "Disasters of War"

For the sake of art Gustave Moreau voluntarily isolated himself from society. The mystery with which he surrounded his life turned into a legend about the artist himself.

Moreau was born on April 6, 1826 in Paris. His father, Louis Moreau, was an architect whose responsibility was to maintain the city's public buildings and monuments. The death of Moreau's only sister, Camille, brought the family together. The artist's mother, Polina, was wholeheartedly attached to her son and, having become a widow, did not part with him until her death in 1884.

From early childhood, parents encouraged the child's interest in drawing and introduced him to classical art. Gustave read a lot, loved to look at albums with reproductions of masterpieces from the Louvre collection, and in 1844, after graduating from school, he received a bachelor's degree - a rare achievement for young bourgeois. Pleased with his son's success, Louis Moreau assigned him to the workshop of the neoclassical artist François-Edouard Picot (1786-1868), where the young Moreau received the necessary training to enter the School of Fine Arts, where he successfully passed the exams in 1846.

St. George and the Dragon (1890)

Griffin (1865)

The training here was extremely conservative and mainly consisted of copying plaster casts from ancient statues, drawing male nudes, studying anatomy, perspective and the history of painting. Meanwhile, Moreau became increasingly fascinated by the colorful paintings of Delacroix and especially his follower Theodore Chasserio. Having failed to win the prestigious Prix de Rome (the School sent the winners of this competition at its own expense to study in Rome), Moro left the school in 1849.

The young artist turned his attention to the Salon, an annual official exhibition that every beginner sought to attend in the hope of being noticed by critics. The paintings presented by Moreau at the Salon in the 1850s, for example, "Song of Songs" (1853), revealed a strong influence of Chasserio - executed in a romantic manner, they were distinguished by piercing color and frantic eroticism.

Moreau never denied that he owed a lot of his work to Chasserio, his friend who died early (at the age of 37). Shocked by his death, Moreau dedicated the painting “Youth and Death” to his memory.

The influence of Théodore Chasserio is also evident in the two large canvases that Moreau began painting in the 1850s, The Suitors of Penelope and The Daughters of Theseus. Working on these huge, with big amount details, paintings, he almost never left the workshop. However, this high demand for himself later often became the reason why the artist left his work unfinished.

In the fall of 1857, trying to fill the gap in education, Moro went on a two-year trip to Italy. The artist was fascinated by this country and made hundreds of copies and sketches of the masterpieces of the Renaissance masters. In Rome he fell in love with the works of Michelangelo, in Florence - with the frescoes of Andrea del Sarto and Fra Angelico, in Venice he furiously copied Carpaccio, and in Naples he studied famous frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum. In Rome, the young man met Edgar Degas, and together they made sketches more than once. Inspired by the creative atmosphere, Moreau wrote to a friend in Paris: “From now on, and forever, I am going to become a hermit... I am convinced that nothing will make me turn away from this path.”

Pari (Sacred Elephant). 1881-82

Returning home in the fall of 1859, Gustave Moreau began to write with zeal, but changes awaited him. At this time, he met a governess who served in a house not far from his workshop. The young woman's name was Alexandrina Duret. Moreau fell in love and, despite the fact that he categorically refused to marry, was faithful to her for more than 30 years. After Alexandrina's death in 1890, the artist dedicated one of his best paintings to her - "Orpheus at the Tomb of Eurydice."

Orpheus at the Tomb of Eurydice (1890)

In 1862, the artist’s father died, never knowing what success awaited his son in the coming decades. Throughout the 1860s, Moreau painted a series of paintings (curiously, all of them were vertical in format) that were very well received at the Salon. The most laurels went to the painting “Oedipus and the Sphinx,” exhibited in 1864 (the painting was purchased at auction by Prince Napoleon for 8,000 francs). It was the time of triumph of the realistic school, headed by Courbet, and critics declared Moreau one of the saviors of the genre of historical painting.

The Franco-Prussian War, which broke out in 1870, and subsequent events surrounding the Paris Commune had a profound impact on Moreau. For several years, until 1876, he did not exhibit at the Salon and even refused to participate in the decoration of the Pantheon. When the artist finally returned to the Salon, he presented two paintings created on the same subject - a difficult-to-perceive oil painting, "Salome" and a large watercolor "Phenomenon", which was met with disapproval by critics.

This painting by Moreau is an unusual interpretation of the biblical scene in which the beautiful Salome dances before King Herod, who promised to fulfill her every desire for this dance. At the instigation of Mother Herodias, Salome asked the king for the head of John the Baptist. So the queen wanted to take revenge on John the Baptist, who condemned her marriage with Herod. In Moreau's masterpiece, the head of John the Baptist is presented as a vision, appearing to Salome in a halo of heavenly light. Some critics believe that the painting depicts the moment preceding the beheading of John the Baptist, and thus Salome sees the consequences of her action. Others believe that the scene depicted by the artist takes place after the execution of the saint. Be that as it may, in this dark, detailed canvas we see how shocked Salome is by the eerie ghost floating through the air.
John's eyes look straight at Salome, and long hair Thick streams of blood flow down onto the floor from the Forerunners. His severed head floats in the air, surrounded by a bright glow. This halo consists of radial rays - this is how radiance was painted in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - it is the sharp rays that further emphasize the disturbing atmosphere of the picture.

Salome Dancing Before Herod (1876)

However, admirers of Moreau's work perceived his new works as a call for liberation of imagination. He became the idol of symbolist writers, including Huysmans, Lorrain and Péladan. However, Moreau did not agree with the fact that he was classified as a Symbolist; in any case, when in 1892 Péladan asked Moreau to write a laudatory review of the Symbolist salon “Rose and Cross,” the artist resolutely refused.

Saint Sebastian and the Angel (1876)

Meanwhile, Moro’s unflattering fame did not deprive him of private customers, who continued to buy his small canvases, usually painted on mythological and religious subjects. During the period from 1879 to 1883, he created four times more paintings than in the previous 18 years (the most profitable for him was a series of 64 watercolors, created based on La Fontaine’s fables for the Marseilles rich man Anthony Roy - for each watercolor Moro received from 1000 to 1500 francs). And the artist’s career took off.

In 1888 he was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1892, 66-year-old Moreau became the head of one of the three workshops of the School of Fine Arts. His students were young artists who became famous already in the 20th century - Georges Rouault, Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet.

In the 1890s, Moreau's health deteriorated greatly, and he began to think about ending his career. The artist decided to return to unfinished works and invited some of his students to help, including his favorite Rouault. At the same time, Moreau began his last masterpiece, Jupiter and Semele.

The only thing the artist now strived for was to turn into memorial museum my house. He was in a hurry, enthusiastically marking the future location of the paintings, arranging them, hanging them - but, unfortunately, he did not have time. Moreau died of cancer on April 18, 1898 and was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in the same grave with his parents. He bequeathed his mansion to the state along with his workshop, where about 1,200 paintings and watercolors, as well as more than 10,000 drawings were kept.

Gustave Moreau always wrote what he wanted. Finding inspiration in photographs and magazines, medieval tapestries, antique sculptures And oriental art, he managed to create his own fantasy world, existing outside of time.

The Muses Leaving Their Father Apollo (1868)

When viewed through the lens of art history, Moreau's work may seem anachronistic and strange. The artist's passion for mythological subjects and his bizarre style of painting did not fit well with the heyday of realism and the emergence of impressionism. However, during Moreau’s lifetime, his paintings were recognized as both bold and innovative. Seeing Moreau's watercolor "Phaeton" At the World Exhibition of 1878, the artist Odilon Redon, shocked by the work, wrote: “This work is capable of pouring new wine into the wineskins of old art. The artist’s vision is distinguished by freshness and novelty... At the same time, he follows the inclinations of his own nature.”

Redon, like many critics of that time, saw Moreau’s main merit in the fact that he was able to give a new direction traditional painting, to build a bridge between the past and the future. The symbolist writer Huysmans, author of the cult decadent novel "On the contrary" (1884), considered Moreau " a unique artist", having "neither real predecessors nor possible successors."

Not everyone, of course, thought the same. Critics of the Salon often called Moreau's style "eccentric." Back in 1864, when the artist showed “Oedipus and the Sphinx” - the first painting that really attracted the attention of critics - one of them noted that this canvas reminded him of “a medley on themes by Mantegna, created by a German student who was resting while working for reading Schopenhauer."

Odysseus Beating the Suitors (1852)

Odysseus beats the suitors (detail)

Moreau himself did not want to admit that he was either unique, or out of touch with the times, and, moreover, incomprehensible. He saw himself as an artist-thinker, but at the same time, which he especially emphasized, he put color, line and form in the first place, and not verbal images. Wanting to protect himself from unwanted interpretations, he often accompanied his paintings with detailed comments and sincerely regretted that “until now there has not been a single person who could seriously talk about my painting.”

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra (1876)

Moreau always paid special attention to the works of old masters, those same “old wineskins” into which, according to Redon’s definition, he wanted to pour his “new wine”. For many years, Moro studied the masterpieces of Western European artists, and primarily representatives of the Italian Renaissance, but the heroic and monumental aspects interested him much less than the spiritual and mystical side of the work of his great predecessors.

Moro had the deepest respect for Leonardo da Vinci, who in the 19th century. considered the forerunner of European romanticism. Moreau's house kept reproductions of all Leonardo's paintings presented in the Louvre, and the artist often turned to them, especially when he needed to depict a rocky landscape (as, for example, in the paintings "Orpheus" and "Prometheus") or effeminate men who resembled those created by Leonardo image of Saint John. “I would never have learned to express myself,” Moreau will say, already a mature artist, “without constant meditation before the works of geniuses: the Sistine Madonna and some of Leonardo’s creations.”

Thracian girl with the head of Orpheus on his lyre (1864)

Moreau's admiration for the masters of the Renaissance was characteristic of many artists of the 19th century. At that time, even such classic artists as Ingres were looking for new subjects, not typical of classical painting, and the rapid growth of the colonial French empire aroused the interest of viewers, especially creative people, in everything exotic.

Peacock Complaining to Juno (1881)

The archives of the Gustave Moreau Museum reveal the incredible breadth of the artist's interests - from medieval tapestries to antique vases, from Japanese woodcuts to erotic Indian sculpture. Unlike Ingres, who limited himself exclusively to historical sources, Moreau boldly combined on canvas images taken from different cultures and eras. His "Unicorns", for example, seem to have been borrowed from a gallery of medieval paintings, and the painting “Apparition” is a real collection of oriental exoticism.

Unicorns (1887-88)

Moreau deliberately sought to saturate his paintings as much as possible with amazing details, this was his strategy, which he called “the necessity of luxury.” Moreau worked on his paintings for a long time, sometimes for several years, constantly adding more and more new details that multiplied on the canvas, like reflections in mirrors. When the artist no longer had enough space on the canvas, he hemmed additional strips. This happened, for example, with the painting “Jupiter and Semele” and with the unfinished painting “Jason and the Argonauts”.

Moreau's attitude towards paintings was reminiscent of the attitude of his great contemporary Wagner towards his symphonic poems - both creators found it most difficult to bring their works to the final chord. Moro's idol Leonardo da Vinci also left many works unfinished. The paintings presented in the exhibition of the Gustave Moreau Museum clearly show that the artist was not able to fully embody his intended images on canvas.

Over the years, Moreau increasingly believed that he remained the last guardian of tradition, and rarely spoke favorably of contemporary artists, even about those with whom he was friends. Moreau believed that the painting of the Impressionists was superficial, devoid of morality and could not help but lead these artists to spiritual death.

Diomedes Devoured by His Horses (1865)

However, Moreau’s connections with modernism are much more complex and subtle than it seemed to the decadents who adored his work. Moreau's students at the School of Fine Arts, Matisse and Rouault, always spoke of their teacher with great warmth and gratitude, and his workshop was often called the “cradle of modernism.” For Redon, Moreau's modernism lay in his "following his own nature." It was this quality, combined with the ability for self-expression, that Moreau tried in every possible way to develop in his students. He taught them not only the traditional basics of craftsmanship and copying Louvre masterpieces, but also creative independence - and the master’s lessons were not in vain. Matisse and Rouault were among the founders of Fauvism, the first influential artistic movement of the 20th century based on classical ideas about color and form. So Moreau, who seemed to be an inveterate conservative, became the godfather of a movement that opened new horizons in 20th century painting.

The last romantic of the 19th century, Gustave Moreau, called his art “passionate silence.” In his works, a sharp color scheme was harmoniously combined with the expression of mythological and biblical images. “I never looked for dreams in reality or reality in dreams. I gave freedom to the imagination,” Moreau liked to repeat, considering fantasy one of the most important forces of the soul. Critics saw him as a representative of symbolism, although the artist himself repeatedly and decisively rejected this label. And no matter how much Moreau relied on the play of his imagination, he always carefully and deeply thought through the color and composition of the canvases, all the features of lines and shapes and was never afraid of the most daring experiments.

Self-Portrait (1850)