Ophelia among the Flowers

A face floats almost hidden on the right side of this pastel, her profile turned upward and her hair melting into the golden and blue haze around her. She is Ophelia, the tragic figure from Shakespeare's Hamlet who drowns among the flowers she has gathered. Odilon Redon chose not to show the drama of her death directly. Instead he lets her nearly dissolve into the landscape, so that the tumbling bouquet of red blooms, blue leaves, and green stems on the left almost outshines her entirely.

Redon was a French artist working around 1905, tied to the Symbolist movement, which favored dreams, moods, and inner feelings over realistic scenes. He worked in pastel here, building up rich layers of color that give the flowers a glowing, almost floating quality. The blue leaves scattered across the top are pure imagination rather than any real plant, a reminder that Redon cared more about atmosphere than accuracy. Look for the way Ophelia's face barely separates from the sky, a clever touch that suggests she is already slipping away from the world of the living.