Collection: Carlos Schwabe Collection

Born in Germany in 1866 and raised in Switzerland, Carlos Schwabe was a leading Symbolist painter and illustrator whose talent fully blossomed in Paris. Capturing mystical worlds inspired by mythology and literature in fin-de-siècle Paris, he profoundly influenced his contemporary artists.

Schwabe's distinctiveness lies in his exhaustively detailed linework and visionary aesthetics where the boundaries between reality and dreams seamlessly dissolve. He revealed not only the visible world but also intangible emotions such as life and death, or ideal and despair, capturing them with a beauty that is at times terrifying and at others angelically pure.

Even in our modern lives, his dramatic yet delicate expressions possess the power to transform the everyday into a theatrical scene. The decadent, beautiful imagery he conveys adds an intellectual mystique to daily living, mysteriously enhancing the individuality of those who embrace it.