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Your gallerySymbolic Head
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Trace the nested rectangles of red and brown around the head, then look for the white band of the helmet and the patterned shoulder below.
Redon often painted a head in profile, a motif the Cleveland Museum of Art reads as the spirit turning away from the material world toward dreams. Here the head is framed by a series of rectangles that seem to close in around it. Conservation study has shown that the figure is a woman wearing a helmet and holding a green staff.
oil on paper mounted on canvas · Framed: 69 x 54.5 x 7.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Symbolism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Symbolic Head
- Artist
- Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
- Date
- c. 1890
- Medium
- oil on paper mounted on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 69 x 54.5 x 7.5 cm (27 3/16 x 21 7/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 53.3 x 38 cm (21 x 14 15/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of the Mildred Andrews Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.