Gustav Adolf Mossa French, 1883-1971

Estate of the artist
Private Collection, Tel Aviv

Nice, Musée Municipal, Exposition d'Ymages sur l'oeuvre de Schumann par G.A. Mossa, 1913
Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition d'Ymages de Gustav-Adolf Mossa, inspirées par l'oeuvre de Robert Schumann, 1913, no. 18
Nice, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Salon, 1927, no. 560

Robert de Souza, 'Un imagier niçois, G.A. Mossa', L'Eclaireur de Nice, 9 December 1913, p. 1
Habert, 'Exposition Mossa', La Revue des Beaux-Arts, 28 December 1913, p. 7
Gustave Kahn, 'Revue de la Quinzaine. Art', Le Mercure de France, 1 January 1914, pp. 210-211
Jean-Roger Soubiran, 'Les influences gothiques dans l'art symboliste de Gustav Adolf Mossa', Nice Historique, April - June 1978, no. 255
Jean-Roger Soubiran, Gustav Adolf Mossa et les Symboles, Nice, 1978, no. 176, illustrated

Executed on cream wove paper. There are no signs of any tears or damages. There are a few small discoloured spots around the edges, otherwise the work is in good overall condition and the colours remain bright. Held under glass in a simple plaster moulded gilt frame with a cream linen mount. Unexamined out of the frame.
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Executed in 1912, Mossa added the following explanation when exhibiting this work in Paris in 1913: 'N'ayant point de carosse, Estrella se rend au bal sur un chemin formé de papillons que conduit le fou du Roi.'  (As she had no carriage, Estrella went to the ball on a road of butterflies, conducted by the court jester).

Mossa's graphic work lies at the heart of his oeuvre. He received his initial training from his father, Alexis, an academic landscape painter who had studied under Ingres, Cabanel and Moreau at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Mossa's subsequent development, however, was inspired by a multiplicity of styles and influences. Literary sources include Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Huysmans and D'Aurevilly; Schumann and Wagner were Mossa's most dominant musical sources of inspiration, while a combination of Mossa's thorough knowledge of the work of Moreau, Beardsley, Art Nouveau and painting of the Florentine Quattrocento informed his graphic development.

Mossa's choice of subject matter was conditioned by his symbolist aesthetic. The pivotal theme in Mossa's oeuvre was the battle of the sexes, which is only resolved through Love or Death. For Mossa, eroticism defined the relationship between Man and Woman, and life, as defined by Love, was a combat in which woman was invariably the victor. Mossa's visual exploration of this theme resulted mostly in the portrayal of Woman as a diabolical, seductive and sphinx-like creature.

Mossa's most original and controversial works were produced between 1903 and 1918, when he was in his twenties and thirties, the period represented by the present collection of works (lots 282-285).