Two Women under a Red Tree 1905

Odilon Redon painted ‘Two Women Under a Red Tree’ using oil on canvas sometime during the late 19th or early 20th century. Redon was working in France at a time when academic art was under pressure from new avant-garde styles. This painting is striking for its rejection of naturalistic color. The figures are dark against a landscape of intense blues, greens, and reds. The women gathering flowers could be interpreted as a symbolic representation of the natural world and the role of women within it. However, the painting's symbolism can only be understood through knowledge of the Symbolist movement and the importance it gave to subjective experience. To understand Redon’s work more fully, art historians consult letters, exhibition reviews, and other primary source documents, and look at the social and institutional contexts in which his art was made. The meaning of art always depends on its historical context.