Dreams, myths and moonlight
Symbolism
Late nineteenth-century painters in France, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium and America who painted dreams and myths more than the world outside. Puvis de Chavannes’s sleepers under a low moon, Moreau’s sphinx clinging to Oedipus, Burne-Jones’s knight listening at the organ, Ryder’s boat under a yellow moon, Vedder’s sea serpent in the dunes, and Redon’s flowers on a rust-red ground.
As a puzzle
Pictures that blur at the edges. Redon’s sky dissolves into pink cloud, Ryder works in olive and near black, and Puvis paints in pale, chalky colour with hardly a shadow, so those go slowly. Start from whatever has a firm edge: the knight’s armour, the sphinx’s wings, a white vase, a green flowerpot. Keep the count low.
A good size here: 40–150 pieces.
Subjects here: FlowersLandscapesStill LifeHorsesThe SeaMusic and Dance
16 pictures, pick one to build
Oedipus and the Sphinx Gustave Moreau, 1864 
Sleep Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, ca. 1867–70 
The Dream of the Shepherd (Der Traum des Hirten) Ferdinand Hodler, 1896 
The Shepherd's Song Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1891 
The Chariot of Apollo Odilon Redon, 1905–16 
The Forest of Arden Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1888–97 (?), reworked 1908 (?) 
Etruscan Vase with Flowers Odilon Redon, 1900–1910 
Roman Landscape Attributed to Arnold Böcklin, ca. 1850–52 
The Love Song Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1868–77 
Lair of the Sea Serpent Elihu Vedder, ca. 1899 
The Toilers of the Sea Albert Pinkham Ryder, ca. 1880–85 
Ariadne George Frederic Watts, 1894 
Bouquet in a Chinese Vase Odilon Redon, ca. 1912–14 
Cypress and Poppies Elihu Vedder, ca. 1880–90 
Autumn Meadows Formerly attributed to Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1912–17 
Hortensia Fernand Khnopff, 1884