This fantastical drawing of a helmeted woman in profile is one of four similar charcoal drawings Redon executed during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The sitter, rendered strangely mute by her helmetlike covering and untouchable by its thorny needles, varies slightly from sheet to sheet. While the exact meaning of Redon's image is unclear, it has been thought that the bizarre bondage imposed on his sitter expresses subconscious fear of female sexuality or, conversely, serves as a symbol of female fecundity. Equally important, however, is Redon's virtuoso handling of charcoal and his ability to capture its full range of tones, from the dark velvet quality of the helmet to the pallor of the woman's skin.
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Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Masterpieces of Drawing," November 4, 1950–February 11, 1951.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "French Drawings: Masterpieces from Seven Centuries," 1955-1956.
Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "French Drawings: Masterpieces from Seven Centuries," 1955-1956.
Art Institute of Chicago. "French Drawings: Masterpieces from Seven Centuries," 1955-1956.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "French Drawings: Masterpieces from Seven Centuries," 1955-1956.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin," December 4, 1961–February 4, 1962.
Paris. Cabinet des dessins, Musée du Louvre. "Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York de David à Picasso," October 25, 1973–January 7, 1974.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth Century French Drawings and Prints," June 23–August 23, 1981.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings, Prints and Photographs: A Selection," July 25–September 10, 1989.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," November 28, 1994–February 5, 1995.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," July 27–October 25, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," February 17–May 13, 2007.
Wildenstein I.264
Claude Roger-Marx Redon, fusains. Paris, 1950, fig. no. pl. 1, ill.
Regina Shoolman, Charles E. Slatkin Six Centuries of French Master Drawings in America. Oxford University Press, New York, 1950, fig. no. pl. 117, p. 208.
Museum of Modern Art Bulletin. Museum of Modern Art, New York, vol. 19, no. 2, Winter 1952, fig. no. 14, pl. 11, p. 14, ill.
John Rewald Post-Impressionism: from van Gogh to Gauguin. 1st ed. (later eds. 1962, 1978). New York, 1956, p. 170, ill.
"MMA Bulletin" French Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 17, no. 6, New York, February 1959, p. 170, ill.
Jacques Fryszman "French Drawings from the Metropolitan Museum at the Louvre." The Burlington Magazine. 115, no. 849, December 1973, fig. no. 4, pp. 835-37, ill.
Colta Ives "French Prints in the Era of Impressionism and Symbolism." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988 (Summer), p. 24, ill.
Nicholas Wadley Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing. Laurence King Publishers, London, 1991, fig. no. 78, p. 70.
Nadine Orenstein, Jeff L. Rosenheim "A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints and Photographs." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. LXXIV, no. 3, Winter 2017, pp. 14-15, ill.
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