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Your galleryOedipus and the Sphinx
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Look at the small distance between the two faces, then follow the Sphinx’s claws down Oedipus’s body to the remains at the bottom of the painting.
Moreau showed this painting at the Paris Salon in 1864. It depicts Oedipus confronting the Sphinx, whose riddle threatens the lives of those who cannot answer. Remains of earlier victims lie below the pair. Instead of staging a broad battle, Moreau concentrates the encounter into their close, unbroken exchange of looks.
Oil on canvas · 81 1/4 × 41 1/4 in. (206.4 × 104.8 cm · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Symbolism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Oedipus and the Sphinx
- Artist
- Gustave Moreau (French, Paris 1826–1898 Paris)
- Date
- 1864
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 81 1/4 × 41 1/4 in. (206.4 × 104.8 cm)
- Credit line
- Bequest of William H. Herriman, 1920
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.