Haunting

Odilon Redon French

Not on view

A ghostly female figure walks—or floats—in a trance-like state. The long ends of her headscarf billow as if moved by a mysterious breeze, while strange forms emerge from the darkness and hover around her. Redon produced various states of this print, transforming his initial depiction of an episode from Faust, a play by the German poet Goethe, into the enigmatic scene we see here. Only in this final state did the artist render the background pitch black, heightening the ominous character of the image.

Haunting, Odilon Redon (French, Bordeaux 1840–1916 Paris), Lithograph; fifth (final) state

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