The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 03 April 2025

Currently not on display

  • Share
    ×
    • twitter
    • facebook
    • line
    • Copy permalink
  • Enlarge
  • Zoom
  • Print

Currently not on display

Gustave Moreau

Paris, 1826 - Paris, 1898

Salome at the Prison

Date c. 1873-76
Materials and Techniques oil on canvas
Size(cm) 40 x 32
Inscriptions Signed lower right: Gustave Moreau; Title and signature on the back of the canvas: Salomé-Gustave Moreau-
Credit Line Matsukata Collection
Standard ref. Mathieu 162; M811
Category Paintings
Collection Number P.1959-0196

Gustave Moreau was a nineteenth-century French Symbolist painter. The subject of the work is the beheading of St. John the Baptist. After being arrested for criticizing the marriage of King Herod of Judea to Herodias, the former wife of Herod’s brother, the saint was killed to reward Herodias’s daughter Salome for dancing before her stepfather. In fin-de-siècle art, Salome often represents the femme fatale who lures men to their doom. Here, however, Moreau focuses on the emotional undercurrents of her reaction to St. John’s beheading. (Source: Gallery label, October 2016)

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Hector Brame, 27 December 1872; Charles Hayem (according to Alfred Baillehache); Berne-Bellecour; Esnault-Pelterie; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 5 March 1912, no. 46, repr.; where bought back by Mrs. Esnault-Pelterie or bought by Georges Petit (according to Alfred Baillehache); Galerie Georges Petit, Paris; purchased from Galerie Georges Petit by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. November 1921 (Fr. 11,000) [see duplicate receipt from Galerie Georges Petit to Kojiro Matsukata, dated 10 November 1921, in Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1984
Gustave Moreau et Symbolisme, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, 9 September 1984 - 14 October 1984, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, 27 October-2 December; Mie Prefectural Art Museum, 4 January-11 February 1985, cat. no. 64 (entry by MATHIEU, Pierre-Louis), repr.
1986
Gustave Moreau Symboliste, Kunsthaus, Zürich, 14 March 1986 - 25 May 1986, cat. no. 59, col. repr.
1992
Adam & Eve, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 10 October 1992 - 6 December 1992, cat. no. 2, col. repr.
1995
Gustave Moreau, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 21 March 1995 - 14 May 1995, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 23 May-9 July, cat. no. 58, col. repr.
1996
The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 79
1998
Gustave Moreau: 1826-1898, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 29 September 1998 - 4 January 1999, Art Institute of Chicago, 13 February-25 April; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 24 May-22 August
2008
Korekushon Tema Ten Kirameki no Kesshou: Gustave Moreau to Deshitachi, Ohara Museum of Art, 30 September 2008 - 30 November 2008
2014
Voices Calling from the Unusual: Hirano Keiichiro's Selection of Western Art Masterpieces, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 8 April 2014 - 15 June 2014, cat. no. 19
2017
Théodore Chassériau: parfum exotique, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 28 February 2017 - 28 May 2017, cat. no. 40.
2019
The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 105, col. repr.

Bibliography

1976
Mathieu, Pierre-Louis. Gustave Moreau, sa vie, son œuvre: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre achevé. Fribourg, 1976 (Trans. Takashina, Shuji; Oki, Yukiko. Gustave Moreau, sa vie, son œuvre. Tokyo, Sanseido,1980), no. 164, repr.
1983
Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 16 (1982), 1983, Change of Inventory Number. pp.36-37, repr.
1983
Takahashi, Akiya. Observations sur la Salomé à la prison de Gustave Moreau. Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 16 (1982), 1983, pp. 39-48.
1983
Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1983 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 73, repr.
1984
Gustave Moreau et le Sympolisme (exh. cat.). [Tokyo], Tokyo Shimbun, [1984], pp. 98-99, cat. no. 64, col. repr.
1986
Gustave Moreau, Symboliste (exh. cat.). Kunsthaus Zürich. [Zürich], Das Kunsthaus, 1986, pp. 174-175, cat. no. 59, col. repr.
1990
Catalogue of Painting Acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 81-82, repr.
1990
The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. D-6.
1992
Adam & Eve (exh. cat.). The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, ed. Saitama, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 1992, p.36, cat. no. 2, col. repr.
1995
Gustave Moreau (exh. cat.). National Museum of Wetsern Art, ed. Tokyo, NHK, 1995, p. 221, cat. no. 87, col. repr.
1998
Gustave Moreau 1826-1898 (exh. cat.). Metropolitan Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Réunion des musées nationaux; Lacambre, Geneviève. Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998, pp. 106-107, cat. no. 41, col. repr.
2006
Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 93, col. repr.
2009
Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 93, col. repr.
2013
Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 100, col. repr.
2017
Théodore Chassériau: Parfum Exotique (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi; Musée national d'art occidental, Tokyo, eds. Tokyo, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, 2017, pp. 120-121, 254, cat. no. 40, col. repr.
2018
The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 811, col. repr.
2019
The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 195, 197, 367, cat. no. 106, col. repr.

Page top

Permalink:https://collection.nmwa.go.jp/en/P.1959-0196.html

©2022 The National Museum of Western Art, Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art