A woman holds a man who lays partially in her lap, while figures on either side crouch low and look on.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A scene in which the sky is vast and stormy, and the ground seems barren. On a hilltop a woman wearing blue cloth draped over her head and body holds a man who limply leans on her. She has a round gold halo behind her head. The limp man almost entirely nude and bleeds from a wound in his side. To either side of them people crouch on the slopes of the hill. They look toward the limp man or up at the sky and clasp their hands in front of them.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.263
People
Gustave Moreau, French (Paris 1826 - 1898 Paris)
Title
The Pietà
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Descent from the Cross
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1867
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230131

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
32.4 x 40.3 cm (12 3/4 x 15 7/8 in.)
frame: 43.5 x 51.8 x 5.1 cm (17 1/8 x 20 3/8 x 2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: -Gustave Moreau-

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Gustave Moreau, sold; to Paul Chevandier Valdrôme, 1872. Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.263
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: with a catalogue of the finished paintings watercolors, and drawings, New York Graphic Society (Boston, MA, 1976), cat. no. 94, p. 310
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 121; repr. as no. 321
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Gustave Moreau, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1991), no. 124, p. 90
  • Geneviève Lacambre, Gustave Moreau: Maître Sorcier, Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1997), pp. 15-17
  • Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Monographie et nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre achevé, ACR Édition (Paris, France, 1998), no. 109, p. 306, repr.
  • Geneviève Lacambre, Gustave Moreau: Magic and Symbols, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1999), pp. 15-17

Exhibition History

  • Moreau and Monticelli, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 05/13/1960 - 06/08/1960
  • Pre-Raphaelite and Early French Symbolist Art in the Fogg Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/16/1973 - 02/25/1973
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu