Artwork

Elle tire de sa poitrine une eponge toute noire, la couvre de baisers (She draws from her bosom a sponge, perfectly black, and covers it with kisses)

Elle tire de sa poitrine une eponge toute noire, la couvre de baisers (She draws from her bosom a sponge, perfectly black, and covers it with kisses) is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Odilon Redon. It dates from 1896 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

Created in 1896, this lithograph by French Symbolist Odilon Redon bears the poetic title Elle tire de sa poitrine une éponge toute noire, la couvre de baisens.

Created in 1896, this lithograph by French Symbolist Odilon Redon bears the poetic title Elle tire de sa poitrine une éponge toute noire, la couvre de baisens. The print presents a solitary female figure, dressed in a flowing gown and a dark hat, who brings a black sponge to her face as if to seal it with kisses. The composition is rendered in stark, gestural lines that give the scene an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality.

Subject & Meaning

The central figure appears to be engaged in an intimate, ritualistic act: she lifts a pitch‑black sponge to her bosom and presses it to her lips. The juxtaposition of darkness (the sponge) and affection (the kisses) suggests a meditation on concealment, desire, or the absorption of sorrow, themes recurrent in Redon’s Symbolist oeuvre.

Technique & Style

Redon employed the lithographic process, drawing directly onto a prepared stone surface with greasy media before transferring the image onto paper. The print’s rough, scratchy contours and high‑contrast black shapes emphasize a spontaneous, sketch‑like quality, reinforcing the work’s atmospheric and otherworldly mood.

History & Provenance

The lithograph was produced during the later phase of Redon’s career, when he increasingly turned to printmaking to explore symbolic narratives. It was issued as part of a limited series of lithographs that circulated among collectors and exhibited in Parisian salons, reflecting the artist’s growing reputation in the fin‑de‑siècle avant‑garde.