The Boat with Two White Women

A single sailboat drifts across still water, its tan sail catching the light while two small figures in white sit quietly on deck. Above and behind them, the sky erupts into a riot of color, dabs of red, orange, blue, and green scattered like confetti or wildflowers blooming against the pale air. This burst of color feels almost like a dream, which fits the artist perfectly. Odilon Redon was a French painter working around the turn of the twentieth century, and he became famous for images that blur the line between the real world and the imagination.

For much of his career Redon worked in dark charcoals and prints, filling his pages with strange, shadowy visions. Later in life he turned to color and never looked back, filling his canvases with the kind of glowing, jewel-like tones you see here. The boat and its passengers are painted plainly enough, but the colorful clouds behind them turn a simple scene into something poetic and a little mysterious. Redon was not trying to record a real place. He was more interested in mood and feeling, letting the colors do the talking rather than the details.