Gustave Moreau was born in Paris, France, was one of the leading Symbolist specialists. His paintings portrayed numerous artistic and legendary subjects in a profoundly imaginative way, using rich Oriental shading harmonies. One of his most praised art paintings is the watercolor apparition, a dazzling scene from Salome’s legend, which is a repetitive subject in Moreau’s works.

In the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, his Oedipus and the Sphinx have an unusually debauched quality. Large numbers of his most significant paintings are in the Musãe National. As a leading educator of the Ãecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, he showed two influential comrades, Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault.