Princesse Maleine's title and to some extent the image itself, derive from Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play from 1889, an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm's Maid Maleen. The play tells the tragic story of the young princess, in love with a prince but events unfold unfavorably. Maleine refuses to abandon her love for Hjalmar and is locked in a tower while war erupts and her entire family is killed. After escaping and concealing her identity, she becomes a servant in the house of Hjalmar. By now, the prince is engaged to Uglyane, whose mother the mysterious Queen Anne has seduced his father, King Hjalmar. Queen Anne, upon discovering Maleine's identity, coaxes King Hjalmar into aiding to kill her. She is put in prison, then poisoned and strangled. “Something dark is coming,” says a worried Maleine while the poison is being prepared (Act III, Scene 3). Upon discovery, the outraged Hjalmar kills Anne and then himself.

Literature has pride of place in Odilon Redon's graphic works, for example in the album À Edgar Poe from 1882 or the three series of plates for La Tentation de Saint Antoine, inspired by Gustave Flaubert, published between 1888 and 1896. In turn, Redon inspired writers, especially the young Maeterlinck, who filled the walls of his study in Oostacker, Belgium with the artist's lithographs.

According to Mellerio, Redon printed only 8 impressions of Princesse Maleine, inking only the top three-quarters of the copperplate on which he had previously etched David (Mellerio 14). The horizontal scratches and incisions used to cancel David are only partially erased. In the new image, these strokes herald the young woman's tragic destiny. Redon turned the copper plate upside-down and burnished out some of the earlier work on the plate. Considerable drypoint was added in the new etching but, curiously enough, he left the previous cancel lines on the plate. Its deep and delicate black tones embody the symbolist and tragic atmosphere of Princesse Maleine. The black shadows on the etching embody the obscure threat that fills the young princess with foreboding. Redon's drypoint gives a lovely grace to her delicate face (“I saw her only once... But she had a certain way of looking down”, Act I, Scene 3), drowning the young princesse’s body in black ink from the burr of the drypoint.

Each proof was inked a little differently and therefore the picture height in the individual prints varies. Two of the eight proofs are in the Art Institute of Chicago[1]. Another proof is in the Kunstmuseum, The Hague[2] and one in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.[3] A fifth Princesse Maleine appeared recently on the art market in Paris.[4] A second edition, posthumously printed in 1922 at the request of Mme. Redon of 30 proofs on Japon, was printed by Louis Fort. The entire plate has been inked in this edition, making part of the earlier design of David that Redon had not completely burnished out, visible. A third edition, also printed in 1922 at the request of Mme. Redon, consists of 138 proofs on Japon by Louis Fort, printed for 125 deluxe copies of Odilon Redon, A soi-meme. A few more impressions were made more recently, before the copperplate was lost. None of those posthumous impressions match the quality of the first edition.

[1] Reference nos. 1920.1545 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/79280/princess-maleine-the-little-madonna & 1920.1546 https://www.artic.edu/artworks/79282/princess-maleine-the-little-madonna. A third Maleine on Japanese paper, reference no. 1946.57, listed as I/II, is likely the second, fully inked, posthumous state: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/54781/princess-maleine-the-little-madonna

For all three Maleines in Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/collection?q=maleine]

[2] Object no. 0214433, https://www.kunstmuseum.nl/en/collection/princesse-maleine?origin=gm

[3] Notice no. FRBNF41461460, https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41461460r

[4] https://www.sarah-sauvin.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=206&virtuemart_category_id=212&lang=en