Baronne de Domecy

Baronne de Domecy from around 1900, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, depicts Ida de Domecy — wife of Robert de Domecy, one of Redon's most important patrons. The Domecy family commissioned Redon to decorate the library and dining room of their château in Burgundy with decorative panels, one of the most significant commissions of his career. This portrait of the Baronne, placed against the luminous, symbolic color that Redon brought to all his late figure work, is at once a conventional society portrait and a characteristic Redon symbolic image. The Getty's acquisition of this work makes it accessible in a collection that strongly represents French Post-Impressionism.

The figure is placed against a background of soft, atmospheric color — blues, greens, and warm tones that suggest rather than define a specific space. The portrait's status as both likeness and symbolic image is conveyed through this ambiguous setting, which removes the sitter from any specific social context.