Melancholy

French artist Odilon Redon created this charcoal drawing in 1876 as part of his "noirs" series, works that exploited the expressive powers of black. A woman leans forward with downcast eyes, set against a mountainous landscape that evokes the Pyrénées near Redon's childhood home. Small fantastical details emerge from the shadows: a faint creature above the woman and a profile hidden in the darkness beside her.

Redon described his childhood as solitary, spent "watching the clouds pass, following with infinite pleasure the magical brightness of their fleeting variations." But he also characterized himself as a "sad and weak child" who "sought out the shadows." This personal note of melancholy and pessimism found expression in his mature art, particularly in his mysterious Symbolist works.

The artist wanted to "place the visible at the service of the invisible," representing the ghosts of his own mind rather than visual reality. Redon suffered from periodic depression, and works like this one explore his internal feelings and psychological states. The drawing is now in a private collection.