Gustave MOREAU (Paris, 1826 - 1898) The Persian Poet, around 1886 Watercolor gouache, pen and brown ink, black pencil on cream paper. Signed lower left: " - Gustave Moreau - ". 36,5 x 16,4 cm Provenance : - Former Antony Roux collection (acquired from the artist). - Antony Roux sale, Paris, Georges Petit gallery, May 19-20, 1914 (n° 99, sold for 3650 francs to Georges Petit). - Former Chabrol collection. - Anonymous sale, Me Le Floch, Saint-Cloud, October 12, 2015, n° 48. Bibliography: - Ary Renan, Gustave Moreau 1826-1898, Paris, Éditions de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1900, p. 33 (volume edition of the suite of articles that appeared in 1899 in the periodical). - Gustave Larroumet, Derniers portraits, Paris, 1904, p. 247. - Seymour de Ricci, " La Vente Antony Roux ", - Gil Blas, 20 May 1914, p. 2. - L.R., " Notes d'un curieux. Antony Roux Sale", Le Gaulois, 20 May 1914, p. 4. - Valmont, " Les Grandes ventes ", Le Figaro, 20 May 1914, p. 6. - Collection Antony Roux", Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 23 May 1914, p. 168. - Ragnar von Holten, L'Art fantastique de Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1960, unpaginated. - Ragnar von Holten, Gustave Moreau, cat. exp.Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1961, p. 22. - Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau with a catalog of the finished paintings, watercolors and drawings, Boston, New York Graphic Society, 1976, n° 346, p. 357, reproduced. - Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau, monograph and new catalog of the finished work, Courbevoie, ACR, 1998, n° 385, p. 397 reproduced. - Geneviève Lacambre, Gustave Moreau, cat. exp.Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, p. 271. Gustave Moreau was taught by Picot from 1844 to 1846. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts but left in 1849 after failing twice at the Prix de Rome. His friendship with Théodore Chassériau was an essential influence. In 1852, his parents acquired the house on the rue de La Rochefoucauld, which became his studio and later the museum that he bequeathed to the State to preserve and exhibit his life's work. For nearly fifty years, Moreau's work was unique in its thematic and pictorial consistency. Admired by the symbolist generation - as much by painters as by poets - Gustave Moreau leaves the memory of an exceptional teacher to his students Desvallières, Matisse or Rouault. Imbued with mythology and dreams, the work of Gustave Moreau remains an essential inspiration for many creators of the 20th century. In 1912, André Breton was marked by his visit to the painter's studio. Fascinated by the Orient, Gustave Moreau was inspired by forms of all origins conducive to dreaming. Moreau frees himself from archaeology to arrive at an imaginary and eclectic Orient far removed from academic orientalism. Motifs inspired by India, Persia and the Arab world, but also by Greece and biblical lands, merge in a personal exotic vision. Several works, however, are specifically indicated by the artist as inspired by Persian culture. In 1866, the painter exhibited a Peri, fan project, whose motif will be found several times. Around 1886, Moreau produced two watercolors, entitled The Persian Poet, one of large format, exhibited at Goupil's (Pierre-Louis Mathieu, op. cit., no. 384), and the other, very different. Gustave Moreau adopts here a format stretched in height. The poet on horseback, wearing a sort of papal tiara, is in dialogue with the angel of inspiration, whose orange wings stand out against a night sky. The ascending composition adds a pronounced mystical character. The artist combines the subtlety and refinement inspired by Persian miniatures with the illustration of a theme that is dear to him, that of poetic inspiration. The remarkable provenance of this sheet makes it all the more precious. It was acquired from the artist by Antony Roux (1833-1913), one of the painter's main patrons. The Marseilles-based art lover commissioned the exceptional set of watercolors illustrating the Fables of La Fontaine. The catalog of his sale after his death in 1914 reveals the extent of his collection of Moreau's works: we find oils such as Moses on Display, Equality before Death, Orestes and the Erynians, Perseus and Andromeda, one of the versions of The Apparition, Christ in the Garden of Olives, Hercules and the Hydra, The Song of Songs and six important watercolors, including our Persian Poet, described as follows: "In a parade, the young Persian poet, mounted on his white horse with pink legs, advances, hands crossed on his chest, the forehead girded with a tiara, the inspired look; he listens to the voice of an angel draped in azure and with large wings of fire which accompanies him.