This print is from a series inspired by Gustave Flaubert’s prose-poem La Tentation de Saint Antoine. These prints are not pure illustration but rather serve as loose interpretations of the story. Dream-imagery was central to many of Redon’s drawings and prints, and his works are often peopled with fantastic hybrid creatures or strange combinations of subjects. Redon had a reflective, solitary childhood, in which nature and dreams played an important part. He later expressed the view that society wanted to control natural phenomena, and in the process suppressed its dreams.