The Chimera with Green Eyes Turns, Bays 1888

Editor: This is Odilon Redon’s “The Chimera with Green Eyes Turns, Bays,” a lithograph from 1888. It’s really striking how Redon uses the charcoal to create this moody, almost nightmarish creature emerging from the darkness. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The Chimera, yes! A creature born of darkness and imagination. Redon wasn't just drawing a monster; he was tapping into a cultural memory of hybridity, fear, and the monstrous-feminine. This chimera is baying, howling - what emotion do you perceive in its cry? Editor: Hmm, I’d say…anguish? There’s definitely a sense of suffering in the way it’s hunched over and the almost frantic lines of the charcoal. Is there a reason it's always depicted with “green eyes”? Curator: Green is life but can symbolize decay as well. Look closely, does the creature’s body represent death? Its head alive and baying into the dark, or perhaps to us as if aware of the future of this earth and humanity. Is it warning us, or begging for something? The gaze pierces... Do you think Redon uses this creature to reflect something about humanity or about our destructive capabilities? Editor: Possibly both? I can see how the creature seems like a reflection of the darker sides of human nature. The animalistic features definitely imply raw emotion, and like the destructive impulses we may have, that could lead us to our own ruin, so to speak. Curator: Redon invites us to face our fears, not as external monsters, but as reflections of our own psyches. The cultural memory of such creatures are useful. Now that we faced this, what’s next, do you think? Editor: I guess confronting our darker impulses would be a pretty good start.