Salome at the Prison|Gustave Moreau |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 03 April 2025

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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.

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