Book excerpt: The French painter Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) strove to renew figure painting by creating an unacademic form of 'epic' art. In this book, Peter Cooke explains how Moreau effectively created pictorial Symbolism through his novel approach to the genre of history painting. In the process, the author examines the artist through a number of his major paintings, his ideology and aesthetic, and in relation to other artists of his time and of the previous generations. The narrative follows Moreau's career from his Neoclassical and academic training through his conversion to Romanticism, his studies in Italy, his experiences as an exhibitor at the Paris Salon, between 1864 and 1880, and his subsequent years as a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and as the founder of his own museum. By examining Moreau's critical reception, as well as that of his students, the book shows his controversial effect on the art world of his time, during the Second Empire and Third Republic. Drawing on unpublished manuscripts from the Musée Gustave Moreau in Paris, Cooke presents insights into how Moreau's complex and original art reflects his spiritualist ideology, together with his persistent inner obsessions.