Gustave-Adolphe Mossa, an artist from Nice mainly recognized for his symbolist work and as the last French representative of this movement, is being honored at the Nice Museum of Fine Arts until May 15 through the exhibition “Gustave-Adolphe Mossa – Niciensis Pinxit.” It’s an opportunity to discover his works, sometimes precious, sometimes disturbing, and terribly fascinating.
Johanne Lindskog, heritage curator and director of the Nice Museum of Fine Arts, and Yolita René, co-curator of the exhibition, took us through this exhibit which highlights this artist who owes so much to the city of Nice, and vice versa.
Pierrot s’en va, 1906. Oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm. Gustave-Adolphe Mossa.
If Mossa’s name first evokes the symbolist paintings he created during his life — notably the rather dark themes he painted, the Oedipus complex present in several of his paintings, the many Salomés he depicted, and the infinity of details, from the painting to the frame, that emanated from his works — the exhibition also revisits the other artistic fields he touched.
His relationship with writing, as well as his relationship with music, ran throughout his work — some of his paintings being directly inspired by Baudelaire’s poems — to the point that he himself produced numerous illustrations for different books.
The artist from Nice also painted many postcards which he sent to his family, and painted numerous landscapes of the hinterland with watercolor, a technique he mastered thanks to his father, the painter Alexis Mossa. A lover of regionalist live shows, Gustave-Adolphe Mossa also participated in the creation of Nissa La Belle with Francis Gag in the mid-1950s.
The Wonders of Niçoise Cuisine, 1961. Gustave-Adolphe Mossa. Illustration for the Nice Carnival.
Mossa is also about his attachment to the city of Nice which he demonstrated through 61 years of carnival creation. He was the one who designed the floats for the carnival from 1901 to 1962, always knowing how to capture an era — he created floats representing the wonders of Niçoise cuisine, the King of Madagascar, and even the Rolling Stones. This attachment, he also demonstrated through 45 years as curator of the Nice Museum of Fine Arts.
Finally, Gustave-Adolphe Mossa is also a symbolist artist who, while keeping the very 19th-century aesthetic and extending it into the 20th century, integrated some very avant-garde elements such as the little pearl sewn onto the canvas in The Kiss of Helen, for example.
The Kiss of Helen, 1905. Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 73.3 cm. Gustave-Adolphe Mossa.
You can come and discover this exhibition and the treasures it houses until May 29, 2022, at the Jules Chéret Museum of Fine Arts in Nice, at 33 avenue des Baumettes.
