1943.263: The Pietà
PaintingsA 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
-
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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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