Eve

Odilon Redon's 'Eve' (1904) engages with the biblical first woman — Eve as a figure of elemental feminine significance, the beginning of human consciousness and the origin of knowledge, desire, and mortality. Redon's engagement with the Eve subject was in keeping with his broader interest in myth and archetype as vehicles for exploring the depths of human psychological experience. His late Eve is far from the conventional narrative treatment of the Genesis story — it would likely depict the figure in the context of his characteristically rich, atmospheric, and symbolically charged color world.

Redon renders Eve with his characteristic late-career luminous palette and atmospheric handling — the figure emerging from or situated within the extraordinary color environment that he developed in his late pastels and oils. His treatment of the female figure carries the same visionary, symbolic quality he brought to all his mythological subjects. The specific color relationships and atmospheric qualities create the distinctive Redon experience of figure within pure color sensation rather than within naturalistic space.