Projet d'illustration pour Macbeth - les sorcières-1 

Luc-Olivier Merson painted this illustration project for Macbeth in France sometime between 1860 and 1920. It depicts the three witches gathered around a cauldron, as in Shakespeare's play. The image evokes a sense of the uncanny. But it is not only the subject matter that is strange. Look at the brushstrokes and the dark muted colors that evoke the gothic and surrealist styles. The witches are barely visible, lost in the landscape. The painting is a response to the symbolist movement that was flourishing in France at the time, particularly in the theatre. In symbolist dramas, characters were treated more like symbols than people. Symbolist artists were preoccupied with the depiction of internal states of consciousness. To truly understand a painting like this, we need to ask not only about the artist, but about the art institutions and movements that surrounded him. It is in their context that the meaning of artworks becomes clear.