Art! Art! Art! › Works

Oedipus and the Sphinx

Gustave Moreau, 1864

Gustave Moreau's Oedipus and the Sphinx, dated 1864, shows the Greek hero face to face with the winged monster whose riddle has destroyed every traveler before him. The painting belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where visitors can study its tense, close-up encounter and its carefully worked detail.

Where to see it

Oedipus and the Sphinx is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that is the museum to visit to see it. Works are sometimes moved, rotated or lent to other institutions, so check the Metropolitan Museum of Art's official website for current display status before you plan your visit.

What to look for in person

The locked gaze

The Sphinx, with a woman's head and breasts, a lion's body and wings, has sprung onto Oedipus and grips his chest with her claws. Neither figure moves; they stare into each other's eyes at very close range. Stand back first to see how the two bodies form a single, tight vertical group, then step closer to study the faces. Oedipus appears calm and controlled while the creature presses against him, and the tension of the scene comes from this stillness rather than from violent action.

Remains at the lower edge

Look down to the bottom of the canvas. Moreau placed fragments of the Sphinx's earlier victims among the rocks, including a hand and a foot belonging to bodies lying below the ledge. These details are easy to miss if you only look at the two central figures, yet they make the stakes of the encounter clear: those who failed to answer the riddle did not survive. The contrast between the smooth, carefully modeled main figures and these grim fragments is a key part of the picture's effect.

Tall format and fine detail

At 206 by 105 centimeters, the canvas is roughly twice as tall as it is wide, and this format squeezes the figures into a narrow rocky pass. Take time over the precise finish of the bodies and the ornamental, almost jewel-like treatment of the Sphinx's wings and headdress, as well as the small symbolic objects placed around the figures. Close looking rewards visitors here: meticulous detail and dense symbolism are characteristic of Moreau's approach to mythological subjects throughout his career.

About the painting

Gustave Moreau was a French painter best known for mythological and biblical subjects treated with rich ornament and a mood of quiet, charged stillness. Oedipus and the Sphinx, dated 1864, is among his most widely recognized works and is often discussed as the painting that first brought him broad public attention in Paris. The subject comes from Greek myth. The Sphinx guarded the road to Thebes and posed a riddle to travelers, killing those who could not answer. Oedipus solved it, and the creature's power was broken. Moreau does not show the answer or the defeat; he chooses the moment of confrontation, with the monster pressed against the hero and both held in a silent exchange of looks. Art historians commonly connect the picture with Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's earlier treatment of the same theme, and comparing the two helps explain Moreau's choices: where earlier versions tend to separate the figures, Moreau brings them into intimate, uneasy contact. The large vertical canvas, 206 by 105 centimeters, gives the figures near life-size presence. In the gallery, it is worth alternating between distance and proximity. From afar the composition reads as a single upright mass of rock and bodies; up close, the finely handled surfaces, decorative details and the remains of victims at the lower edge reveal how much thought went into every part of the scene. The painting is frequently seen as an early sign of the interests that later made Moreau important to Symbolist artists and writers.

Key facts

Sources

• Wikidata Q293990
• www.metmuseum.org
• engage.metmuseum.org