Portrait of Gustave Moreau by Himself

Portrait of Gustave Moreau by Himself (1890) in ink at the Musee Gustave Moreau is one of the rare instances in which Moreau turned his attention from mythological and Symbolist subjects to direct self-observation. Self-portraiture carries particular resonance at the end of an artist's life — by 1890, Moreau was sixty-four, in the last decade of his life, and had recently begun teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where his students included Matisse and Marquet. The choice of ink as medium is unusual and suggests either a quick, direct study or a deliberately austere approach to self-representation — very different from the elaborate, jewel-encrusted imagery of his public work. A self-portrait in ink strips away the mythological apparatus and shows the man behind the symbolism.

Ink as medium demands economy and precision — there is no layering or glazing, only the direct mark. Moreau's mastery of line and his experience as a draughtsman are displayed in the concentrated observation of his own features, rendered without the coloristic richness of his painted works.