Petite fille tricotant

This undated oil of a small girl knitting, held at the Musée d'Orsay, is among the most unexpectedly intimate subjects in Redon's output — a quiet domestic observation entirely removed from his visionary mythological and symbolic work. Its presence in the Orsay collection as part of the comprehensive Redon holding suggests it may date from his family life in Bièvres or elsewhere, where he observed the children of friends or family in quiet domestic activity. Redon was a devoted father, and images of children at simple domestic tasks occupy a strand of his practice that is rarely discussed alongside the 'Cyclops' and the 'Closed Eyes.' The technique — soft, luminous colour in oil on canvas — is consistent with his late colour period, but the subject is purely observed rather than imagined. Knitting itself, as a repetitive, meditative activity, is a Symbolist-compatible subject: absorbed, interior, the antithesis of dramatic action.

Oil on canvas painted in Redon's late colour technique but with a specifically observational quality that differs from his imaginary subjects. The figure is described with more anatomical consistency than his mythological beings. Soft warm light falls on the child's face and hands — the active elements in the composition. The work's scale and support suggest it was made as a personal image rather than an exhibition piece.