Who painted “Oedipus and the Sphinx”?

“Oedipus and the Sphinx” was painted by Gustave Moreau in 1864. Where to see it: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What to look for

Academic Art: smooth, glossy surfaces and idealised figures, usually from myth, the Bible or history; Realism shows ordinary people and Impressionism visible, broken strokes.

Gustave Moreau (6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence". He was an influential forerunner of symbolism in the visual arts in the 1860s, and at the height of the symbolist movement in the 1890s, he was among the most significant painters. Wikipedia

Test yourself: a round on Gustave Moreau

More by Gustave Moreau

“Orphés”, 1865
“Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra”, 1876
“The Apparition”, 1876
“Salomé Dancing before Herod”, 1876
“Salome”, 1874
“Jason”, 1865
“Mystic Flower”, 1890
“Saint George and the Dragon”, 1889–1890