Profile in an Arch 1905

Odilon Redon made this pastel drawing, Profile in an Arch, in France toward the end of the nineteenth century. It is an artwork full of uncertainty. The depicted woman can be interpreted as a classical figure, perhaps a vestal virgin or a saint, but the loose strokes and soft colors give the scene a dreamlike and melancholic quality. Redon emerged as an artist during a period of significant change in France. The old hierarchies of the French academy were under pressure, and new movements like Impressionism and Symbolism challenged traditional artistic values. He was associated with the Symbolist movement, which sought to express subjective emotions and ideas through symbolic imagery. Many Symbolist artists were critical of bourgeois society and explored themes of spirituality, the unconscious, and the irrational. To understand the imagery more fully, we can turn to sources that explore the cultural and intellectual climate of the time. Symbolist journals, exhibition catalogs, and literary works offer a window into the themes and ideas that shaped the artistic production of the time. Ultimately, Redon’s art reminds us that the meaning of art is never fixed.