This room is in part dedicated to the great symbolist painter from Bordeaux, Odilon Redon.
Although for a long time, the artist was accustomed to working in black and white, he later moved to working in pastels using a highly colourful palette. In this oil and pastel on card, the diaphanous and luminous colours transport us into a dreamlike universe. Apollo, the sun god, breaks through the blue of the sky on his golden chariot drawn by four spirited horses. Proud and triumphant, he takes off from the summit of a rocky mountain whilst his chariot lunges ahead into the air. On the right, one horse is rearing up and darting towards the zenith. The line of the horizon creates two well distinct zones; on one side the hard mineral landscape, made up of the arid and rocky mountains, on the other, the light uninterrupted space of the sky.
From 1905 to 1910, Redon worked on this theme inspired by the ceiling of the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre, a masterpiece painted by Delacroix. Redon had noted in his diary: “It is the triumph of light over darkness. The joy of daylight opposed to the sadness of the night and shadows and the joyful relief that comes after anguish”.
