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A nude figure is approached from behind by a figure with bright red wings.

A nude figure stands with their left arm raised and their right arm behind their hip as they stand in a dynamic pose. They look right, toward a winged figure who flies from behind, looking to the standing figure and crossing their arms across their chest. There are two figures who kneel and crouch by the figure’s feet, they are barely lit and almost unnoticeable compared to the bright light cast on the standing and winged figures by a cross which floats over their heads and seems to be made of dripping red liquid.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.265
People
Gustave Moreau, French (Paris 1826 - 1898 Paris)
Title
Saint Sebastian and the Angel
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Saint Sébastien Baptisé Martyr
Alternate Title: The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian / Saint Sebastian
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1876
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230112

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
69.5 × 39.7 cm (27 3/8 × 15 5/8 in.)
framed: 83.2 × 54 × 6.4 cm (32 3/4 × 21 1/4 × 2 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: -Gustave Moreau-
  • label: back of frame, paper: 9258
  • label: back of frame, paper: 8342 [crossed off]
  • label: back of frame, paper: 2394 [crossed off]
  • label: back of frame, paper: 5854 [crossed off]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Lepel-Cointet[?]. [Allard et Noël]. A. Baillehache, 1906, sold [through his estate sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, May 23, 1922, lot 38]; to Gal [Gallery?] Pehl [?]. [1] [Dubourg, Paris], sold [via Martin Birnbaum]; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, 1927, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Notes
[1] An annotated version of the sale catalogue lists "Gal Pehl" as the purchaser of the painting.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.265
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Judith Gautier, [Unidentified article], Le Rappel (May 6 1876)
  • Exposition Gustave Moreau au profit des oeuvres du travail et des pauvres honteux, exh. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris, France, 1906), cat. no. 4
  • Catalogue des tableaux par...oeuvres importantes par Gustave Moreau..., auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot (PAris, May 23, 1922), p. 24, lot 38, repr.
  • Fritz Novotny, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780 to 1880, Penguin Books (Baltimore, MD, 1960), repr. pl. 151A
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: with a catalogue of the finished paintings watercolors, and drawings, New York Graphic Society (Boston, MA, 1976), cat. no. 165, pp. 323-324; repr. b/w . pp. 129, 324; text pp. 126, 128, 139
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 121; repr. as no. 322
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gustave Moreau, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1991), no. 189, p. 98 and color plate XXIV
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1994), pp. 110, 132; repr. p. 133
  • Gustave Moreau: Gyusutavu Moro, exh. cat., Nihon Hoso Kyokai (Tokyo, Japan, 1995), p. 148, repr. in b/w
  • Geneviève Lacambre, Gustave Moreau, 1826-1898, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1998), under no. 68, n. 1
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Monographie et nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre achevé, ACR Édition (Paris, France, 1998), no. 191, repr. with original frame; repr. in color, p. 75
  • Geneviève Lacambre, Gustave Moreau: between Epic and Dream, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1999), under no. 68, n. 1
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), pp. 118-119, cat. #25, repr.; repr. p. 46 as fig. 19
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), repr. in color p. 33, as fig. 32
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), repr. in color p. 41, as fig. 31
  • "Symbolist Saints", Christie's Magazine (June 2005-August 2005), vol. XXII, no. 4, pp. 61-62, p. 62
  • 19th Century European Art Including Ottomans & Orientalists, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, England, June 15 2005), repr. in b/w as fig. 1 under no. 118, p. 100
  • Gustave Moreau (Tokyo, 2019), p. 94, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Annual Exhibition, 1876, Salon, Paris, Paris, 01/01/1876 - 12/31/1876
  • Exposition Gustave Moreau au profit des oeuvres du travail et des pauvres honteux, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 01/01/1906 - 12/31/1906
  • Moreau and Monticelli, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 05/13/1960 - 06/08/1960
  • Pre-Raphaelite and Early French Symbolist Art in the Fogg Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/16/1973 - 02/25/1973
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu