French symbolist school; Last third of the 19th century.

French symbolist school; Last third of the XIX century.
"Portrait of a lady".
Watercolor on paper glued to cardboard.
Presents on the back label of Goupil.
Signed "Gustave Moreau".
Measurements: 40 x 32 cm; 64 x 54 cm (frame).
In this watercolor portrait of a lady, there is a clear aesthetic correspondence with the symbolist principles. The transparency of watercolor, with its soft glazes and delicate transitions, contributes to create an ethereal atmosphere that dissolves the defined contours, enhancing the idea of a figure more evocative than concrete. In this type of portrait, the symbolist aesthetic is revealed not only in the formal elements, but also in the attitude with which the image is constructed: the lady does not pose to be represented in psychological or social terms, but to embody an inner vision, a figure that transcends the individual.
The French Symbolist school, which emerged in the second half of the 19th century, represented a turning point in the evolution of European art by proposing an aesthetic centered on suggestion, mystery and interiority, moving away from the objective and naturalistic representations that had dominated previous academicism. Rather than describing the visible world, the symbolists aspired to evoke states of the soul, dreamscapes and spiritual truths through visual, literary and musical language. In this context, the stylistic importance of symbolism lies in its ability to transcend the limits of the tangible. Gustave Moreau, the central figure of this school, embodies this introspective and visionary impulse with a pictorial style that fuses decorative preciosity with a profound allegorical sense. His compositions, loaded with meticulous details, saturated colors and oriental or Byzantine elements, move away from realistic representation to propose an autonomous universe where the feminine, the mythological and the symbolic are intertwined in a dense and spiritual iconography. Moreau does not seek to portray the outside world, but to construct a personal mythology that refers to the eternal and the sacred. The woman, in his work, is often an enigmatic figure, elevated to the category of deity, of idea or mystical revelation.