Gustav-Adolf Mossa

Salome, 1908

Gustav-Adolf Mossa (1883-1971), was a French Symbolist painter under the influence of Gustave Moreau, Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, Edgar Maxence, Emile-Rene Menard. He was impregnated by his readings, Mallarme, Baudelaire, Huysmans, and he was inspired by masters of the Quattrocento, the Pre-Raphaelites, Art Nouveau. He painted extensively for fifteen years, until 1918, but most of his Symbolist works are discovered after his death. He found inspiration in the work of the great writers, especially Baudelaire. His works were often dramatic compositions, often caricatured, analyzing situations in life showing a certain psychological insight. The work of Gustav-Adolf Mossa is a set of references to myths, fables he handled like a psychoanalyst: conflicts of life instincts and impulses of death, Eros and Thanatos, especially in the depiction of Salome that haunts almost all the Symbolists, but also in those of Sappho and Delilah.

Mary de Magdala (1907)

Salome (1904)

La Sirène Repue (1905)

Elle (1906)

Valse Macabre (1906)

Circé (1904)

 

Les Mortes (1908)