Salomé
Henner and Moreau
confront the Myth
Musée Jean-Jacques Henner
- From 18 February to 22 June, 2026
- 43, avenue de Villiers, 75017 Paris
- musee-henner.fr
Alternately sensual and ingenuous, the biblical figure of Salomé has fascinated artists since the Renaissance, notably Jean-Jacques Henner and Gustave Moreau.
The exhibition ‘Salomé. Henner and Moreau confront the Myth’ brings together some thirty works that the two painters devoted to this captivating heroine.
For Gustave Moreau, Salome was an obsession.
For twenty years, he produced dozens of variations centred on the famous dance. Salome, a princess adorned with jewels, moves through richly decorated palaces. Some paintings use such meticulous techniques that they appear to be ‘tattooed’.
Gustave MOREAU, Salomé
Charcoal and black chalk on paper
Paris, musée Gustave Moreau © GrandPalaisRmn / Tony Querec.
Gustave MOREAU, Salomé dansant
Oil on canvas. Paris, musée Gustave Moreau
© GrandPalaisRmn / René‑Gabriel Ojeda
Jean-Jacques Henner focuses on the episode where Salome holds a silver platter with the head of John the Baptist. Without scenery or props, he offers a direct view of the female body, a central theme of his career.
The subject occupies less space than in Moreau’s work, but recurs regularly.
Jean-Jacques HENNER, Étude pour Salomé
Page from the 11 March entry in the 1903 diary
Charcoal on paper. Paris, archives du musée national Jean-Jacques Henner
© Jean-Yves Lacôte.
Jean-Jacques HENNER, Salomé. Variante tardive
1904, Oil on canvas
Paris, musée national Jean-Jacques Henner
© Jean-Yves Lacôte.
‘This is the first time that an exhibition has brought together the works of Jean-Jacques Henner and Gustave Moreau. It will allow visitors to see that they treated the subject in completely different ways,’ explains Maëva Abillard, chief curator of the Jean-Jacques Henner Museum.
Preparatory drawings, sketches and paintings, including Henner’s last work, Salomé, acquired by the public institution in 2024, will be on display at the Musée National Jean-Jacques Henner (Paris 17th arrondissement) from 18 February to 22 June 2026.
Curators
- Maëva Abillard, chief curator of the Jean-Jacques Henner National Museum, Paris.
- Charles Villeneuve de Janti, general curator, director of the Jean-Jacques Henner and Gustave Moreau National Museums, Paris.
- Assisted by Marie Vancostenoble, acuratorial assistant, in charge of works management and documentation, Jean-Jacques Henner National Museum, Paris.
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