Moreau had a 25-year personal, possibly romantic relationship, with Adelaide-Alexandrine Dureux (b. Guise, 8 November 1835), a woman whom he drew several times. His first painting was a "Pietà" which is now located in the cathedral at Angoulême. He showed "A Scene from the Song of Songs" and "The Death of Darius" in the Salon of 1853. In 1853, he contributed "Athenians with the Minotaur" and "Moses Putting Off his Sandals within Sight of the Promised Land" to the Great Exhibition.