For Redon black was ‘the most essential prince of colours’. For almost twenty years he created nightmarish, Symbolist visions in monochrome charcoal and lithograph prints. In the 1890s he began to paint in colour and did not make any more monochromes after 1900. ‘I wanted to make a charcoal drawing as I used to. Impossible. I have married colour.’ Redon was close to the English Pre-Raphaelites, reacting against the Impressionists and their focus on the natural world in favour of mythical or literary subjects. He painted George and the Dragon several times although it is not clear if this is the subject here. The rider holds a green standard like a medieval knight but there is no dragon. Redon’s vision is mystical and imaginative.