Roger et Angélique

Executed in a limited palette of dark tones, the painting features a stark, almost silhouette‑like horse and rider set against a muted blue‑gray sky. The brushwork suggests swift motion, with the horse’s legs extended as if leaping. A small, ambiguous green‑and‑red form appears in the lower right, adding a subtle accent to the otherwise restrained chromatic scheme.

Redon’s interest in the scene was sparked after his drawings were cited in Joris‑Karl Huysmans’s 1884 novel *À rebours*, which helped bring his Symbolist visions to a wider literary audience. The painting later entered private collections before being acquired by a public institution in the early twentieth century, though exact ownership details remain sparse.

The work reflects Redon’s transition from the earlier, more lyrical watercolors to the darker, more introspective noirs that dominated his output in the 1880s. By invoking a chivalric romance, he aligns his modern Symbolist concerns—dream, myth, and the unconscious—with a classical literary source.

*Roger et Angélique* exemplifies Redon’s capacity to fuse literary inspiration with a visual language of shadow and movement. It continues to be referenced in studies of Symbolist art as a key illustration of how nineteenth‑century painters reinterpreted epic narratives through a personal, psychological lens.