Musee Gustave Moreau

Today I made a visit to one of the lesser-known museums in Paris, the Musee Gustave Moreau. Like the Musee Delacroix, it's the artist's former house, so there's also a lot of living space, with plenty of interesting furniture, ceramics, etc. Although it does kind of feel like a dollhouse, being a six-foot something American guy looking in on a 19th century apartment... the bed was absolutely tiny and there's no way I could squeeze my knees under their tables.

The museum is more of a collection of unfinished paintings and drawings than finished work, but it helps you see the process that went into all of his work. He was an amazing illustrator, and you can see these amazing sketches that are often Lord of the Rings-esque (but well before) in the paintings. I found all of the subject matter really interesting, as well as the treatment, which is academic in style, but with a totally new lens on how to view classical and biblical events in paintings. He definitely brought back a lot of form and beauty of a different type after impressionism. (On a side note, I know this is obvious, but Americans really like Impressionism, but a lot more than the French. Our fascination with Monet, etc is a lot different than the French. I heard as well that most of the major impressionist exhibitions always start in the states and then come to Europe.)

Moreau was also important because of his pupils, which in included Henri Matisse and Georges Roualt (who had an exhbition with the photographers Aaron Siskind -amazing photographer - and August Sander of all people at the Phillips Collection in DC not too long ago).

Anyways, I'd definitely reccomend checking out the museum, just beware of its very French habit to close during lunch for dejeuner.

Some links:

A few Moreau Paintings from the Orsay

Someone please buy me this picture by Lida Moser of Aaron Siskind...

The only completed painting at the Musee Moreau

As a sidenote, I'll be checking out Arles, Avignon, and Aix (quelle alliteration) this weekend.