Brünnhilde in Twilight of the Gods (1894): Art, History and Details

Brünnhilde in Twilight of the Gods (1894) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print shows Odilon Redon’s passion for the music of 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner. Brünnhilde is a main character in the final chapter of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung, an epic four-part operatic piece composed over several decades. Created after Redon’s extensive experimentation with and mastery of lithography, the print reveals the medium’s similarity to drawing in the range of marks used to sketch its subject. Redon delicately outlined flowers in the background and crosshatched to highlight Brünnhilde’s face before turning his crayon on its side to darken her hair and chest.

Object facts

• Title: Brünnhilde in Twilight of the Gods
• Date: 1894
• Creator attribution: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: lithograph
• Dimensions: Image: 38 x 29.2 cm (14 15/16 x 11 1/2 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1945.389

A detail from the museum

This is the second lithograph Redon created depicting Brünnhilde. The first was published in the journal la Revue wagnérienne and shows her as a fierce warrior with a helmet, shield, and armor.

Collection credit

Gift of William Mathewson Milliken, in memory of H. Oothout Milliken

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry S. "Redon's 'Brünnehilde': A Lithograph." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 33, no. 6 (June 1946): 95
• Catalogue of an exhibition of the art of lithography: commemorating the sesquicentennial of its invention, 1798-1948. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 11, 1948-January 2, 1949. Published as: Brünnehilde.
• Milliken, William Mathewson. “Gifts to the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 10 (December 1974): 371–383.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.