Pégase et l'Hydre

Pégase et l'Hydre—Pegasus and the Hydra—painted around 1900 and now at the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse, draws on one of Redon's favourite mythological subjects. The winged horse appeared repeatedly in his work, functioning as a symbol of poetic and spiritual liberation—the imagination freed from earthly constraints. Pitting Pegasus against the Hydra introduces a conflict between creative ascent and monstrous resistance, a tension that resonated with Redon's own experience of decades spent in artistic obscurity before his late recognition. The Fondation Bemberg's collection, focused on Old Masters and nineteenth-century French painting, is an important institutional home for this Symbolist mythology.

Redon renders Pegasus with flowing contours that suggest speed and lightness, while the Hydra is given a darker, more turbulent chromatic treatment. The composition exploits diagonal movement to convey struggle, with colour doing the emotional work that academic painters would have assigned to detailed anatomical rendering.