Odilon Redon, La Cellule d'Or, a drawing in oil and metallic paint

This is one of Redon's (1840-1916) most famous coloured pastels, and was first shown in the gallery of Durand-Ruel - the favoured dealer of the Impressionists - in 1894. There it was seen by Tatiana Tolstoy, the daughter of the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, who noted in her diary: 'One of them whose name I could not make out-something like Redon-had painted a face in blue profile. On the whole face there is only this blue tone, with white-of-lead.' Tolstoy quoted this in his diatribe against contemporary art, 'What is Art?', first published in 1898, as irrefutable evidence of the degenerancy of modern art.

One of many studies of female profiles in Redon's work, La Cellule d'Or ('The Golden Cell') suggests introspection, its golden glow embodying the power of thought. The intense colour and strict composition recall the portraits of the early Florentine Renaissance. Here however, the feeling dominates over objective representation; the blue and gold halo are the traditional colours of the Virgin Mary, but no further religious message intrudes.

The drawing is made on paper in oil paint over a white ground, which gives the colour its luminous intensity.