Provenance
Commissioned by Ambroise Vollard (1867-1939), Paris, February 10, 1899 [according to Chicago 1994]. Henri Petiet (1894-1980), Paris, by March 1940 [according to Wildenstein 1992]; sold to the Art Institute, 1950.
Accession Number
90285
Medium
Various charcoals, with touches of black chalk, stumping, wiping, and erasing, on pale-pink wove paper with red and blue fibers altered to a golden tone
Dimensions
52.6 × 37.7 cm (20 3/4 × 14 7/8 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Credit Line
David Adler Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
Odilon Redon's The Sphinx (1883) is a charcoal drawing on pale-pink wove paper depicting the mythical creature with the head of a woman and body of a lion. The subject appealed to Redon's symbolist imagination.
Cultural Impact
Redon's Sphinx is a powerful symbolist image capturing the mystery of the mythical creature.
Why It Matters
This charcoal drawing captures the enigmatic presence of the Sphinx with Redon's characteristic atmosphere.
Related Artworks
And in the Very Disk of the Sun Lights the Face of Jesus Christ, plate 10 from The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1st series)
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Then There Appears a Singular Being, Having the Head of a Man On the Body of a Fish, plate 5 of 10
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Cover-Frontispiece for the Temptation of St. Anthony
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Ophelia
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