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"The Rose+Croix was an art movement, founded by Joseph Peladan, on religious, mystical and allegorical themes. At it's first exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery shown here, Toorop and De Feure were among those exhibiting. In 'Maitre de l'Affiche' it is described this way: Purety has broken her terrestrial chains. Faith reaches out to help her cross the steps of mystical flowers that lead to Heaven, while ignorant Humanity, bogged down in a mire looks on so enviously" (Phillips I)

"Scwabe's meticulous, analytical draftsmanship lends a definite meaning to each detail. Thus the flowers and plants he drew from nature at different stages of their life, their budding, blossoming, and withering, appear as so many symbolic correlatives of human existence. Haunted by the notions of virginal purity and death, Schwabe's cold tones and themes are strange indeed"(The Symbolist Generation)

Carlos Schwabe 

Carlos Schwabe was born in Germany in 1866 and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, receiving his artistic training at the École des Arts Décoratifs. He moved to Paris in 1890, where he became involved within the Symbolist circles, winning favour as an illustrator of mystical religious themes, such as his poster for the first Salon de la Rose+Croix in 1892. This annual exhibition in Paris showcased mystical Symbolist art, particularly a hermetic, numinous vein of Symbolism that was favoured by Péladan and dominant during the 1890s, a time when religious and occult practices often intertwined. (Christies)