Pastel, with touches of black Conté crayon, over various charcoals, on cream wove paper altered to a golden tone
Based on Redon's own records, we now know that this pastel was originally entitled Sita, after the loyal and noble wife of Rama, hero of the Indian epic The Ramayana. According to this ancient text, Rama faced and ultimately prevailed over numerous misfortunes, among them the abduction of his wife by Ravana, the demonic ruler of Lanka. As she was transported through the sky, Sita tore off and threw down to earth jewels and other pieces of her attire to give Rama clues to her location. This pastel can be interpreted as a very free rendering of this story. While clearly inspired by this exotic tale, the artist alludes to its details only in the vaguest terms, as in the sparkling objects that indeed appear to be falling from Sita's image, in shimmering bursts of color, at lower right. Redon's own brief description, given in the record he kept of his works, emphasizes the image's composition and striking color scheme: "Her head in profile, surrounded by a golden-green radiance, against a blue sky, stardust falling, a shower of gold, a sort of undersea mountain below."
Sita's profile dominates the composition, hovering on a feathery pink cloud and surrounded by a luminous green halo in a manner that recalls Christian conventions for representing saints. Sita's exemplary life does in fact suggest saintly associations and perhaps inspired Redon to adapt a Christian tradition to his representation of her. Her profile is delicate, firm, and somber, with an androgynous quality that heightens the appealing mystery of her face and that has sometimes led writers, unaware of the pastel's original title, to identify the figure as male. Her gaze is steadfast, almost trancelike, and seems focused on the oval form hovering in the night sky. This may allude to the golden egg or embryo that embodied the essence of life and the source of cosmic light in the ancient Hindu text known as the Veda. Sita's skin is a richly toned brown and on her head she wears a bejeweled diadem, whose most distinctive feature is a decorative element echoing a nautilus shell in its spiraling shape. The mood is one of wonder tinged with melancholy before the beauty of this visionary landscape, which seems to evoke both the spectacle of a star-studded sky and, as suggested by Redon's own description, the silence and depth of an undersea world. As we gaze at this image, we are increasingly drawn under the spell of its luminous colors, its velvety textures, and the figure's unfathomable, almost sphinxlike expression, which seems to hint at a world of spiritual awareness and knowledge barely accessible to us. (via Art Institute of Chicago)
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