Melancholy by French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon, 1876. Medium: Charcoal, gouache, pastel, and black chalk on pale-pink wove paper with red and blue fibers (altered to a golden tone), laid down on gray wove paper. Collection: The Art Institute of Chicago. 𝐋𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞: 𝐔𝐧𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧. 𝐍𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 — 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐮𝐬𝐞 — 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞.

Exhaustion knocks—yet from which door?

The one of endless dreams, the one of shadows, the one of hollow veins, or the one echoing with ghosts long gone?

The cruelest lullaby never names its source.

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