# Gustave Moreau — Against the Grain character guide

> Gustave Moreau in Against the Grain by J.-K. Huysmans.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Moreau, a Gustave Moreau fallen sick

**First appearance:** 0005-iii

## Snapshot

The symbolist painter whose jewelled, feverish visions of Salomé and Herodias Des Esseintes treasures as images of a vanished, gorgeous antiquity.

## Who they are

Moreau belongs to the same impulse that makes Des Esseintes prefer the Tentation de Saint-Antoine to the Education sentimentale: a hunger for the remote, the fabulous, the magnificently barbaric, anything but modern existence. His paintings give Des Esseintes a world to inhabit, one where delicate and proud beings move through pomp and suffering. He matters because he shows the aesthetic that governs the villa, the conviction that art should lift a man out of his trivial century.

## Relationships

### [Des Esseintes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters/des_esseintes)

_psychological_

Des Esseintes is captivated by Moreau's paintings, especially the Salomé images, which he interprets as the ultimate expression of perverse, exotic beauty.

### [Des Esseintes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters/des_esseintes)

_psychological_

Des Esseintes is captivated by Moreau's paintings, especially the Salomé images, which he interprets as the ultimate expression of perverse, exotic beauty.

## In the story

### [Against the Grain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/chapters/against-the-grain)

Admired for his painting of Salomé, which deeply affects Des Esseintes.

### [Chapter V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/chapters/v)

His painting of Salomé is Des Esseintes' most treasured possession, embodying a dreamlike, decadent antiquity.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters/gustave_moreau
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/against_the_grain_se/characters