Gustave Mossa

Gustave Mossa studied at Lycée Masséna. The recorded working language is French and Occitan. The field of work recorded is painting. Places of work recorded in the authority are Nice, Paris and Venice. Positions recorded include curator. Work by Gustave Mossa is recorded in the collections of Minneapolis Institute of Art, Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret and Musée Masséna.

• Name — Gustav-Adolf Mossa • Born — 28 January 1883 • Birthplace — Nice, France • Died — 25 May 1971 • Occupation — Museum Curator, Illustrator, Writer, Painter

Mossa was born 28 January 1883 in Nice, to an Italian mother, Marguerite Alfieri, and Alexis Mossa, an artist, founding curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice (Nice Museum of Fine Arts) and organiser of the Nice Carnival from 1873.

Mossa received his initial artistic training from his father before studying at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice until 1900, where he became acquainted with Art Nouveau and was later introduced to the Symbolist movement after visiting the Exposition Universelle in the same year. Mossa was heavily inspired by the art of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau and Symbolist writers, such as Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly and Joris-Karl Huysmans. The main body of Mossa's public and private art work was created with water colours and strong ink lines, the subjects including caricatures, Carnival or medieval scenes, portraits and landscapes, with a fascination for the French Riveria in particular. He also created wooden reliefs, designed theatre scenery, wrote literary essays and created book illustrations, including a large series of drawings for the work of Robert Schumann. In 1902 he began collaborating with his father on the Nice Carnival project, designing floats and posters. Both father and son are still celebrated for raising the Carnival's prestige, and the event continues to be a major, large scale tourism attraction in Nice.

Mossa wrote several operas and plays, and contributed to a revival of dialectal theater with his first theatrical piece Lou Nouvé o sia lou pantai de Barb' Anto (1922), written in the Niçard dialect. Following the play's success, Mossa established the Lou Teatre de Barba Martin group, who performed his comedies 'Phygaço' (1924), 'La Tina' (1926) and 'Lou Rei Carneval' (1935), until 1940. His plays are still performed in Nice.

• Illustration — Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice, where Mossa worked as curator for over forty years After the death of his father, Alexis, Mossa took over the curation of the Nice Museum of Fine Arts in 1927 and would keep the position until his death in 1971. Mossa would later bequeath most of his own artistic pieces to the gallery. From the end of the Second World War, Mossa devoted himself to creating works about the City of Nice, illustrating official documents, drawing armorial bearings and traditional suits of the County, and producing several watercolours of the region's landscapes.

In 1908 he married Charlotte-Andrée Naudin, whom he divorced in 1918. He married again in 1925 to Lucrèce Roux, until her death in 1955. He was married a final time in 1956 to Marie–Marcelle Butteli, until his death on 25 May 1971.

Permanent • The Musée-Galerie d' Alexis at Gustav Adolf Mossa is a museum dedicated to Mossa and his father in Nice • His works are part of The Fin-de-Siècle Museum section of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. • Solo • 1909 Nice, L'Artistique, Exposition d'oeuvres d'Alexis et de Gustav Adolf Mossa • 1911 Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition d'oeuvres de G.A. Mossa • 1913 Nice, Musée Municipal, Exposition d'images sur l'oeuvre de Schumann par G.A. Mossa • 1913 Paris, Galeries George Petit, Exposition d'images de G.A. Mossa, inspirées par l 'oeuvre de Schumann • 1974 Nice, Musée Jules Chéret, Alexis et Gustav Adolf Mossa, peintres niçois • 1978 Nice, Galeries des Ponchettes, Gustave Adolf Mossa et les symboles • 1989 Yokohama, Galerie Motomachi, Gustave Adolf Mossa • 1992 Paris, Pavillon des Arts, G. A. Mossa: L'Oeuvre symboliste 1903–1918 • 2010 Belgium, Felicien Rops Museum, L'oeuvre Secrète de Gustav-Adolf Mossa • Group • 1976 Paris, Espace Pierre Cardin, Exposition Sarah Bernhardt • 1981 Chicago, The David & Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, The Earthly Chimera and the Femme Fatale: Fear of Women in 19th Century Art • 2008 Évian-les-Bains, Palais Lumière, Eros and Thanatos • 2015 Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum, Toulouse-Lautrec and La Vie Moderne: Paris 1880–1910 • 2015 Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Splendour and Misery. Pictures of Prostitution, 1850–1910 • 2017 Frankfurt, Städel-Museum, Geschlechterkampf

Gustave Mossa was recorded at birth as Gustave Adolphe Mossa. He also worked under the name Gustav Adolf Mossa. The authorities additionally record the headings Gustav Adolf Mossa, Gustave, Adolphe Mossa and Gustave-Adolphe Mossa. His recorded languages were French and Occitan. He was the child of Alexis Mossa.

Gustave Mossa is recorded with the occupation watercolorist. Recorded as painter, illustrator, watercolorist, curator and playwright.