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Clik here to view.![Gustave Moreau - Galatea [c.1880] by Gandalf's Gallery](//www.rssing.com/inc2/img/tinyinf.webp)
Gustave Moreau - Galatea [c.1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
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![Gustave Moreau - Galatea [c.1880] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3685/11380563075_817210ee13.jpg)
Gustave Moreau - Galatea [c.1880], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
Moreau’s composition stages a struggle between shadow and light, mineral and liquid, good and evil. Galatea, who has taken refuge in a cave too narrow for the giant to enter, is a pearl gleaming in its setting. The change in scale between the two figures is repeated between Galatea and the tiny nereids almost invisible in the lacework of aquatic plants and coral. This vegetation looks supernatural but was derived from drawings meticulously copied from a book of marine botany in the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, where Moreau had registered as an unofficial student in 1879. The rubbed, scratched texture of the oil paint gives the work a precious, enamelled look. The Salon of 1880 was the last in which Moreau took part. Galatea was a triumph there and marked the height of his career.
[Musée d’Orsay, Paris - Oil on wood, 85.5 x 66 cm]
