Self-Portrait or Psychological Portrait of the Artist

1905

Gustav Adolf Mossa
French, 1883–1971

Status: On View, Gallery 127A
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Gustave Adolf Mossa
Title: Self-Portrait or Psychological Portrait of the Artist
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1905
Medium: Watercolor and pen and black ink, over graphite, with touches of scraping, on cream wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed, dated, and inscribed, lower left, in pen and brown ink: "GUSTAV ADOLF MOSSA / NICIENSIS PINXIT MCMV"
Dimensions: 28.1 × 47.8 cm (11 1/8 × 18 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Regenstein Endowment Fund; Buchanan Family Foundation in honor of Viviane Van Leer Kellermann
Reference Number: 2019.1267

Laertes, La Dépêche de Toulouse (Feb. 1, 1906). L. R., Côte d’Azur (Feb. 2, 1906).
Alexandre Barety, “Gustave-Adolf Mossa peintre niçois,” L’Éclaireur (Mar. 10, 1917), p. 1.
Jean Mouraille, “Les Mossa honorés à Nice,” Nice Matin (Apr. 22, 1974), p. 9.
Marcel Batier, “Du réalisme à l’imaginaire: les Mossa peintes témoins de leur temps,” Plaisir de France, no. 420 (June 1974), p. 4 (ill.).
Jean‐Roger Soubiran, “L’évolution de la technique dans les aquarelles symbolists de Gustave Adolphe Mossa,” Nice historique, no. 1, (1976), pp. 33–34.
Jean‐Roger Soubiran, “Gustave-Adolphe Mossa et son père en Italie,” Nice historique, no. 3 (1976), pp. 140.
Jean Mouraille, “Gustav-Adolf Mossa: une forêt de symbols,” Nice Matin (Sept. 10, 1978), p. 10 (ill.).
Jean‐Roger Soubiran, “Gustav-Adolf Mossa, peintre symbolist niçois (1883–1971),” Ménestral, l’art des Pays d’Oc, no. 18 (June–July 1978), p. 25 (ill.).
Jean‐Roger Soubiran, Gustav Adolf Mossa 1883–1971 (Nice: Ediriviera-Alligator, Nice, 1985), pp. 18 (ill.), 56, 58, 210, 219, 248, 259, 281, and 296, no. 4.
Alain, Amiel, Trames, no. 5 (1987), p. 60 (ill.)
Salome dans les Collections Françaises, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de la Ville de Saint Denis, 1988), p. 98.
Marc‐Gerald Johnson, Gustav‐Adolf Mossa (Grenoble: Brault de Bournonville, 1989), no. 35.
Alexis et Gustav-Adolf Mossa (Nice: Musées des Beauxs-Arts, 1990), pp. 18 (color ill.) and 22.
Sylvie Lafon and Anne-Marie Clais, Gustav Adolf Mossa, la Scène Symboliste (Nice: Z ‘Edition, 1993), pp. 94, 116, and 124.
Evanghélia Stead, Le Monstre, le Singe et le Foetus. Tératogonie et Décadence dans l’Europe fin‐de‐siècle (Genève: Droz, 2004), pp. 481 and 560, no. 1455.
Gustav Adolf Mossa: Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres “Symbolistes” (Paris: Somogy, 2010), pp. 176–77, no. A108 (ill.).

Nice, Crédit Lyonnais, Exposition de la Société des beaux‐arts de Nice, Feb. 1–Mar. 18, 1906, cat. 414.
Nice, Musée Jules Chéret, Alexis et Gustav Adolf Mossa peintres niçois, Mar. 15–May 28, 1974, cat. 107.
Nice, Musée de Nice, Gustav Adolf Mossa et les symboles, Oct.–Dec. 1978, cat. 75 (ill).
Paris, Pavillon des Arts, Gustav Adolf Mossa, L’oeuvre symboliste 1903–1918, June 19–Sept. 27, 1992, p. 143 cat. 68 (ill.).
Athens, Institut français d’Athènes, Gustav Adolf Mossa, L’oeuvre symboliste 1903–1918, Feb.–Mar. 1995, pp. 42–43 (ill.), cat. 26.
Vence, Musée de la N.A.L.L, Art Association, Nall-Mossa Dialogues, July–Sept. 1997.
Holte, Denmark, Gammel Holtegaard, Gustav Adolf Mossa, Symbolistiske Arbejder 1903– 1918, May 4.–June 20, 1999, pp. 36 (ill.), 55, cat. 44.
Evian, Palais Lumière, Eros et Thanatos Dans l’Oeuvre Symboliste de Gustav Adolf Mossa (1904–1918), Feb. 9–May 18, 2008, pp. 44–45 (ill.).
Namur, Musée Félicien Rops, L’oeuvre secrete de Gustav‐Adolf Mossa, Jan. 30–May 16, 2010, pp. 11 (ill.), 12, 88.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination”, October 4, 2025 - January 5, 2026.

Estate of the artist; by descent to Nicolette Mossa-Bourdin, Nice; by descent, Nice, by 2010; sold by Eric Gillis, Brussels, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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