No one could have less faith in the absolute and definitive importance of the work created by man, because I believe that this world is nothing but a dream.

Moreau became a professor at Paris' École des Beaux-Arts in 1891 and among his many students were the fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. Oedipus and the Sphinx one of his first symbolist paintings was exhibited at the Salon of 1864. He showed A Scene from the Song of Songs and The Death of Darius in the Salon of 1853.

As a painter Moreau appealed to the imaginations of some Symbolist writers and artists.