MODERN

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)

Hélène Glorifiée, 1896

Watercolor, gouache and shell gold on paper

12 by 9 1/8 inches (30.5 by 23.2 cm.)

Signed & inscribed 'Gustave Moreau HÉLÈNE GLORIFIÉE'

Provenance

Delivered in 1896 by the artist to Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905) for Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe (1860-1952), Paris
George Wildenstein (1892-1963), Paris
Confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg following the Nazi occupation of Paris, after May 1940 (No. W161)
Transferred to Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany, 15 January 1943
Returned to France, 13 November 1945, and restituted to George Wildenstein, 21 March 1947
With Wildenstein, New York
Florence Gould (1895-1983), New York
Her sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 24-25 April 1985, lot 12
Nomura & Co., Kyoto
Lecien Corporation, Kyoto
With Daniel Varenne, Geneva, 2003
Private collection, Switzerland
Their sale, Christie’s, London, 21 November 2012, lot 14
Private collection, United States

Exhibitions

Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la collection Florence Gould, 1985

Zürich, Kunsthaus, Gustave Moreau Symboliste, 14 March - 25 May 1986, no. 139

Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Gustave Moreau, 21 March - 14 May 1995, no. 97

Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, 23 May - 9 July 1995

New York, David Zwirner, Endless Enigma, 12 September - 27 October 2018

Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Femme Fatale: Gaze – Power - Gender, 9 December 2022 - 10 April 2023

Literature

Robert de Montesquiou, Préface, in: exh. cat. Un peintre lapidaire. Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1906, p. 27
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Sa vie, son oeuvre, Fribourg, 1976, no. 425
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Complete edition of the finished paintings, watercolours and drawings, Oxford, 1977, no. 425
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, “Gustave Moreau et le mythe d'Hélène”, in: Gazette des Beaux-Arts, September 1985, pp. 76-80
Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau. Monographie et Nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre achevé, Courbevoie (Paris), 1998, pp. 123 & 421, no. 462
Gustave Moreau, exh.cat. Grand Palais, Paris, 1998, p. 204
Gustave Moreau, Between Epic and Dream, exh.cat. Art Institute, Chicago & Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Princeton, 1999, p. 227
Natasha Grigorian, European Symbolism: In search of Myth (1860-1910), Oxford/New York, 2009, pp. 52, 60-62
Marie-Cécile Forest & Pierre Pinchon, Gustave Moreau: Hélène de Troie. La beauté en majesté, exh.cat. Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris, Lyon, 2012, pp. 94-95

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