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Pegasus and Bellerophon

ca. 1888
Not on view
Odilon Redon made paintings, drawings, and lithographs on the Pegasus theme from the early 1880s to the end of his career. According to myth, the hero Bellerophon captured the winged horse as it drank at a spring. Riding Pegasus, he was able to defeat the Chimaera, a marauding monster.

In this highly original work, the magnificent Pegasus looms over Bellerophon. Pentimenti (traces of corrections) give his wings a quivering energy. The dark of the charcoal combined with a pattern of lights achieved by erasure and white heightening provides the kind of mystery that Redon cultivated. He used the term noirs (blacks) for his charcoals and lithographs, describing black as the "most essential color . . . the agent of the spirit."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Pegasus and Bellerophon
  • Artist: Odilon Redon (French, Bordeaux 1840–1916 Paris)
  • Date: ca. 1888
  • Medium: Charcoal, charcoal with water wash, white chalk, conté crayon, and highlighting by erasure on buff papier bleuté, darkened.
  • Dimensions: 21 1/8 × 14 3/16 in. (53.7 × 36.1 cm)
    Framed: 31 × 25 in. (78.7 × 63.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.686
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

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Governor George Clinton, Thomas Bluget De Valdenuit French, Conté crayon, charcoal (?), and white-chalk heightening on off-white laid paper coated with gouache, American
Governor George Clinton
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Former Attribution Formerly attributed to Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
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Bouquet of Flowers, Odilon Redon French, Pastel on paper
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Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
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