The Knight of the Flowers

By 1894 Wagner's operas had a devoted following among the Symbolist painters of Paris, and Rochegrosse, known until then for violent history scenes, wanted a place in that refined circle. He showed this canvas at the Salon that spring, the same year he designed sets for The Sleeping Beauty at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre, a production dressed by the English artist Edward Burne-Jones. Parsifal walks through the enchanted garden of the sorcerer Klingsor. The flower maidens press around him with peonies, irises and roses in their hair, and he looks straight past them. Expecting attacks, Rochegrosse wrote in the Journal des Débats on 2 June 1894 that he had left the opera's libretto behind on purpose, to paint a man immune to temptation because he was in love with the ideal. The critics came round, and the State bought the picture for the Musée du Luxembourg.