1912
(French, 1840-1916)
Oil on unprimed canvas
165.1 x 88.9 cm (65 x 35 in.)
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Collection: Gift of David Rockefeller, 1963.012 18.2019
The figure of Andromeda in this painting was inspired by an image of Venus (1839) by French painter Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856).
As his fame grew, Odilon Redon received commissions to create decorative paintings, such as this one. These large canvases were designed to serve as panels in homes or public buildings, a function suggested by the elaborate border and patterning seen here. Andromeda was a mythical maiden chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster, to save her homeland. She was rescued by the story’s hero, Perseus, who fell in love with her. Andromeda was a featured loan in the 1926 exhibition Fifty Years of French Art, which highlighted the ambitious and newsworthy collecting of Redon’s work at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the painting now fittingly returns to the museum’s galleries.
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