Succession de l’artiste, 1972

Collection France Mossa-Lombart, don de son vivant à ses enfants

Collection particulière, Paris 

Vente Paris, Artcurial, 14 novembre 2016, lot 125

Acquis lors de cette vente par l'actuel propriétaire

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Nice, L'Artistique, Visions de guerre : peintures, dessins, aquarelles, gravures, janvier - février 1918, n° 118.

Marseille, Galerie Lambert, Allégories et paysages, novembre 1918, n° 13

Paris, Pavillon des arts, Nice, Galerie des Ponchettes et Galerie Mossa, Gustav Adolf Mossa, l'oeuvre symboliste, 1903-1918, juin - avril 1993, n° 126, reproduit p.215

Nice, Galerie de la Marine et Musée des Beaux-Arts, Alexis et Gustav Adolf Mossa témoins de la Grande Guerre, novembre 2001 - janvier 2002, p. 6

Évian-les-Bains, Palais Lumière, Éros et Thanatos dans l’oeuvre symboliste de Gustav-Adolf Mossa (1904-1918), février - mai 2008, p. 242

R.Febvre, "La Vie artistique. Au musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice", in La Vie niçoise, 17 mars 1918

J. T., "Des Grognards aux poilus", in L'Eclaireur de Nice, 5 mars 1918, p. 3.

J.-R. Soubiran, Les Aquarelles symbolistes et la création plastique symboliste de Gustav Adolf Mossa, thèse de doctorat, Université d'Aix-en-Provence - Marseille, 1978,n° 345 p. 667

J.-R. Soubiran, Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1883-1971, Ediriviera, Nice,1985, n° 337 p. 250

S. Lombart, S.Lombart, J.-R. Soubiran, Gustav Adolf Mossa, Catalogue Raisonné des œuvres « symbolistes », Somogy éditions d'art, Paris, 2010, n° A364 p. 423-424,

In 1918, Gustave Adolf Mossa participated alongside other artist-soldiers in an exhibition organized by the Cercle de l’Artistique in Nice, where he exhibited thirteen watercolours created the previous year. Among the works in Mossa’s series Visions de Guerre is Gretchen, a subject inspired by Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, a musical-theatrical work by German composer Robert Schumann - after the famous play by Goethe – illustrated by Mossa in 1912. The catalogue for the 1918 exhibition specifies the theme: “Long ago she would come to her temple to worship the Eternal! She will no longer be able to, Gretschen [sic]; for her sons have destroyed the sanctuary with the torch handed to them by the Evil One”, a reference to a verse from Racine’s Athalie (I, 1). 

In this allegory of the German invasion, Marguerite – whose German diminutive is Greta or Gretchen – has fallen asleep at her spinning wheel. The image of this young girl in a deep sleep is likely a reference to Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, a tale that captured the imagination of the Symbolists in the late 19th century.

To the bottom right, Faust, who has just betrayed Marguerite, is making a pact with Mephistopheles. The two men embody the evil forces of the German Empire. At Gretchen’s feet, a broken vase of forget-me-nots evokes the vows of love betrayed, whilst the stillborn child, fruit of her tryst with Faust, takes the form of little German soldiers emerging from the hem of her dress. The depiction of a Gothic building in the background condemns the destruction of cathedrals and evokes the loss of cultural heritage caused by the war. The artist plays on contrasts of scale, juxtaposing an imposing mythical world with the tiny soldiers of the German army, like a battle of Lilliputians facing giants. 

This drawing by Gustav Adolf Mossa, a subversive and virtuoso painter who defied categories, offers a powerful testament to his art, which draws upon a host of literary references. Here, the painter from Nice takes the myth of Faust and uses it to offer a political and patriotic interpretation against the harrowing backdrop of the First World War. His transgressive art sounds the death knell for Symbolism and heralds the advent of Surrealism.