Pandora
ca. 1914
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
56 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (143.5 x 62.2 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Alexander M. Bing, 1959
Accession Number
60.19.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Odilon Redon's *Pandora* (ca. 1914), an oil on canvas measuring 56½ x 24½ inches, captures the mythical figure from Greek lore in a dreamlike vision. As the first woman created by the gods, Pandora was endowed with beauty and curiosity, but also tasked with guarding a jar (or box) containing humanity's ills. Redon, a leading French Symbolist (1840–1916), reimagines her here as an ethereal nude surrounded by blooming flowers, ev themes of temptation, mystery, and the blurred line between paradise and peril. This late-career work, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1959, showcases R...
About the Artist
Odilon Redon · 1840–1916
Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was a French Symbolist painter, printmaker, and pastellist whose visionary art bridged the 19th-century Symbolist movement and 20th-century Surrealism. Born Bertrand Redon in Bordeaux on April 20, 1840, he earned the nickname "Odilon" from his mother Odile. His father, who made his fortune in the Louisiana slave trade, conceived Odilon in New Orleans before the family retu...