The Birth of Venus 1912

Odilon Redon’s *The Birth of Venus* is a pastel drawing that conjures up a world of dreams. Look at the chromatic scale shifting from burnt orange to dreamy blues. I imagine Redon smudging, blending, and layering the pastel with his fingers, coaxing these colors to life. There's this figure rising out of the murky depths, a body reaching upwards, as if pulled by an unseen force. I can feel the artist’s hand as he works, as he discovers what the picture wants to become. Think of other painters too, like Gustave Moreau, another symbolist, who was obsessed with mythical subjects. I feel like Redon is in conversation with all of them, pushing painting away from realism towards something more interior and strange, something more personal. This pastel drawing isn't just a representation; it's a record of the artist's process. Redon shows us that painting is a form of embodied expression.