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Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French
During his early years as an artist, Redon's works were described as "a synthesis of nightmares and dreams", as they contained dark, fantastical figures from the artist's own imagination. His work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche. He himself wanted to place "the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible". A telling source of Redon's inspiration and the forces behind his works can be found in his journal ''A Soi-même'' (''To Myself''). Of his process he wrote:
The mystery and evocativeness of Redon's drawings are described by Joris-Karl Huysmans in the following passage from the novel '' À rebours'' (1884):
The art historian Michael Gibson says that Redon began to want his works, even the ones darker in colour and subject matter, to portray "the triumph of light over darkness."
Redon described his work as ambiguous and undefinable:
Redon was the inspiration for
File:OdilonRedon-The Chariot of Apollo.png, The Chariot of Apollo, 1909 (
odilonredon.net
– Online biography and pictures of Odilon Redon
– Links to Redon's works
The Athenaeum
– Extensive list and images of Redon's works
Museum Syndicate
– Odilon Redon Gallery at Museum Syndicate
Web Museum
– Biography and images of Redon's works *
MoMA Exhibition
– "Beyond the Visible – The Art of Odilon Redon" – MoMA exhibition (October 2005 – January 2006)
www.odilon-redon.org
– Site with 322 images by Odilon Redon
– Timeline of Redon's life
Redon's Cats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redon, Odilon 1840 births 1916 deaths Artists from Bordeaux 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 19th-century French engravers 20th-century French engravers 19th-century French lithographers 20th-century French lithographers Post-impressionist painters French Symbolist painters French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Recipients of the Legion of Honour French draughtsmen 20th-century French printmakers 19th-century French male artists
Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; ; 20 April 18406 July 1916) was a French symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
painter, printmaker
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...
, draughtsman and pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
list.
Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, he worked almost exclusively in charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ...
and lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, works referred to as ''noirs''. He started gaining recognition after his drawings were mentioned in the 1884 novel '' À rebours'' (''Against Nature'') by Joris-Karl Huysmans. During the 1890s he began working in pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
and oils, which quickly became his favourite medium, abandoning his previous style of ''noirs'' completely after 1900. He also developed a keen interest in Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
and Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
religion and culture, which increasingly showed in his work.
He is perhaps best known today for the "dreamlike" paintings created in the first decade of the 20th century, which were heavily inspired by Japanese art and which, while continuing to take inspiration from nature, heavily flirted with abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abst ...
. His work is considered a precursor to both Dadaism
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
and Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
.
Early life
Odilon Redon was born inBordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectu ...
, Aquitaine, to a prosperous family. Redon's father made his fortune in the slave trade in Louisiana in the 1830s. Redon was conceived in and the couple made the transatlantic journey back to France while his mother Marie Guérin, a French Creole woman, was pregnant with his brother Gaston. The young Bertrand Redon acquired the nickname "Odilon" from his mother's first name, Odile. Redon started drawing as a child; at the age of ten, he was awarded a drawing prize at school. He began the formal study of drawing at fifteen but, at his father's insistence, he changed to architecture. Failure to pass the entrance exams at Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
ended any plans for a career as an architect, although he briefly studied painting there under Jean-Léon Gérôme in 1864. (His younger brother Gaston Redon
Gaston Redon (28 October 1853 – 20 November 1921) was a French architect, teacher, and graphic artist.
Biography
Redon was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine to a prosperous family, the younger brother of Odilon Redon. Gaston attended the Écol ...
would become a noted architect.)
Back in his native Bordeaux, he took up sculpting, and Rodolphe Bresdin
Rodolphe Bresdin was a French draughtsman and engraver, born in Le Fresne-sur-Loire on 12 August 1822, who died in Sèvres on 11 January 1885.
His fantastic works, full of strange details, particularly attracted Charles Baudelaire, Théophile ...
instructed him in etching and lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. His artistic career was interrupted in 1870 when he was drafted to serve in the army in the Franco-Prussian War until its end in 1871.
Career
At the end of the war, he moved to Paris and resumed working almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography. He called his visionary works, conceived in shades of black, his ''noirs''. It was not until 1878 that his work gained any recognition with ''Guardian Spirit of the Waters''; he published his first album of lithographs, titled ''Dans le Rêve'', in 1879. Still, Redon remained relatively unknown until the appearance in 1884 of a cult novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans titled '' À rebours'' (''Against Nature''). The story featured a decadent aristocrat who collected Redon's drawings. In the 1890s, pastel and oils became his favored media; he produced no more ''noirs'' after 1900. In 1899, he exhibited with the Nabis atDurand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...
's.
Redon had a keen interest in Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
and Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
religion and culture. The figure of the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
increasingly showed in his work. Influences of Japonism
''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...
blended into his art, such as the painting ''The Death of the Buddha'' around 1899, ''The Buddha'' in 1906, ''Jacob and the Angel'' in 1905, and ''Vase with Japanese warrior'' in 1905, amongst many others.
Baron Robert de Domecy (1867–1946) commissioned the artist in 1899 to create 17 decorative panels for the dining room of the Château de Domecy-sur-le-Vault near Sermizelles in Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...
. Redon had created large decorative works for private residences in the past, but his compositions for the château de Domecy in 1900–1901 were his most radical compositions to that point and mark the transition from ornamental to abstract painting. The landscape details do not show a specific place or space. Only details of trees, twigs with leaves, and budding flowers in an endless horizon can be seen. The colours used are mostly yellow, grey, brown and light blue. The influence of the Japanese painting style found on folding screens, '' byōbu'', is discernible in his choice of colours and the rectangular proportions of most of the up to 2.5 metres high panels. Fifteen of them are located today in the Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...
, acquired in 1988.
Domecy also commissioned Redon to paint portraits of his wife and their daughter Jeanne, two of which are in the collections of the Musée d'Orsay and the Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa.
The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and ...
in California. Most of the paintings remained in the Domecy family collection until the 1960s.
Awards
In 1903 Redon was awarded theLegion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...
.
His popularity increased when a catalogue of etchings and lithographs was published by André Mellerio
André Mellerio (1862–1943)"Mellerio, André." ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 June 2014. was a French art critic who promoted the cause of Symbolism and "idealist" art and appeared in two ...
in 1913; that same year, he was given the largest single representation at the groundbreaking US International Exhibition of Modern Art (aka Armory Show), in New York City, Chicago and Boston.
Personal life
At 40, Redon married Camille Falte, a young Creole from Île Bourbon. They had a son, Arï Redon (30 April 1889 – 13 May 1972 in Paris). A visual artist himself, and subject of his father's portraiture as a child, Arï's partner was Suzanne Redon.Death
Redon died on 6 July 1916.Legacy
His choice of colour and subject matter in the second part of his career lead to Redon being considered a precursor toDadaism
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
and Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
. According to Surrealist André Masson, his use of excessively bright colours in his flower pastels, as well as his choice of depicting uncommon or imaginary species renders his works "released from stylized naturalism", thus demonstrating the "endless possibilities of lyrical chromatics".
In 1923 Mellerio published ''Odilon Redon: Peintre Dessinateur et Graveur''. An archive of Mellerio's papers is held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
.
Modern exhibitions
In 2005 theMuseum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
launched an exhibition entitled "Beyond The Visible", a comprehensive overview of Redon's work showcasing more than 100 paintings, drawings, prints and books from The Ian Woodner Family Collection. The exhibition ran from 30 October 2005 to 23 January 2006.
In 2007, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt presented the exhibition "As in a Dream" with a survey of Redon's work with more than 200 drawings, lithographs, pastels, and paintings.
The Grand Palais in Paris, France featured a vast exhibition of Redon's art from March to June 2011
The Fondation Beyeler
The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes a ...
in Basel, Switzerland showed a retrospective from February to May 2014.
The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands, had an exhibition with an emphasis on the role that literature and music played in Redon's life and work, under the title ''La littérature et la musique''. The exhibition ran from 2 June to 9 September 2018.
Analysis of his work
During his early years as an artist, Redon's works were described as "a synthesis of nightmares and dreams", as they contained dark, fantastical figures from the artist's own imagination. His work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche. He himself wanted to place "the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible". A telling source of Redon's inspiration and the forces behind his works can be found in his journal ''A Soi-même'' (''To Myself''). Of his process he wrote:
The mystery and evocativeness of Redon's drawings are described by Joris-Karl Huysmans in the following passage from the novel '' À rebours'' (1884):
The art historian Michael Gibson says that Redon began to want his works, even the ones darker in colour and subject matter, to portray "the triumph of light over darkness."
Redon described his work as ambiguous and undefinable:
Redon was the inspiration for Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film i ...
's 1995 short film '' Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity''.William Beard, ''Into the Past: The Cinema of Guy Maddin''. University of Toronto Press
The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911.
The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...
, 2010. . pp. 363–365.
Gallery
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux is the fine arts museum of the city of Bordeaux, France. The museum is housed in a dependency of the Palais Rohan in central Bordeaux. Its collections include paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 15t ...
)
File:Reflection, 1900-1905.jpg, Reflection, 1900–1905
File:Redon - Saint Sébastien, vers 1910.jpg, Saint Sébastien, 1910 (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux is the fine arts museum of the city of Bordeaux, France. The museum is housed in a dependency of the Palais Rohan in central Bordeaux. Its collections include paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 15t ...
)
File:WLA moma Odilon Redon Apparition.jpg, Apparition, 1905
File:Odilon Redon - Caliban - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Caliban'', 1881 (Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...
)
File:Redon spirit-waters.jpg, ''Guardian Spirit of the Waters'', 1878 (Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
)
File:Odilon Redon - The Trees - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Trees'', c. 1890s (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)
File:Odilon Redon - 'Lady of the Flowers', oil on canvas, c. 1890-95.JPG, ''Lady of the Flowers'', c. 1890–1895 ( Honolulu Museum of Art)
File:16 sep 13 redon morgat.jpg, ''The Port of Morgat'', 1882, Dallas Museum of Art
File:Odilon Redon - The Cyclops, c. 1914.jpg, '' The Cyclops'', 1914 ( Kröller-Müller Museum)
File:Redon.ophelia.jpg, ''Ophelia'', 1900–1905 (Dian Woodner Collection)
File:Odilon Redon - Baroness Robert de Domecy - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Baroness
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or ...
Robert de Domecy'', 1900 (Musée d'Orsay)
File:1900, Redon, Odilon, Vase of Flowers.jpg, ''Vase of Flowers'', c. 1900–1910, (Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works ...
)
File:Odilon Redon - Flower Clouds - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Flower Clouds'', 1903 (The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...
)
File:Redon.bouddha.jpg, ''The Buddha'', 1904 (Musée d'Orsay)
File:16 sep 13 redon.jpg, ''Initiation to Study: Two Young Ladies'' (c. 1905) Dallas Museum of Art, oil on canvas 93 × 65 cm
File:Redon, Odilon, Apparition, 1905-10.jpg, ''Apparition'', 1905–1910, (Princeton University Art Museum)
File:Odilon Redon 005.jpg, ''Flowers'', 1909
File:Odilon Redon - Der Wagen des Apolls.jpg, ''Chariot of Apollo'', c. 1910 (Musée d'Orsay)
File:Odilon Redon 003.jpg, ''Portrait of Violette Heymann'', 1910 ( Cleveland Museum of Art)
File:Saint Sebastian by Odilon Redon.JPG, ''Saint Sebastian'', 1910–1912, ( National Gallery of Art)
File:Redon.coquille.jpg, ''Coquille'', 1912 (Musée d'Orsay)
File:1914 Odilon Redon Pandora anagoria.JPG, ''Pandora'', c. 1914 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
File:Evocation Odilon Redon.jpeg, ''Evocation'', undated, private collection
File:Odilon Redon Les Anemones MIA 20163358.jpg, ''Les Anemones'' (''Still Life with Anemones''), c. 1900–1910 ( Minneapolis Institute of Art)
File:Odilon Redon, Maurice Denis, 1903, NGA 45844.jpg, alt=Portrait of the artist Maurice Denis created as a lithograph by Odilon Redon, from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC., Odilon Redon, ''Maurice Denis'', 1903. Lithograph. National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection, 1958.8.198
File:Redon cactus-man.jpg, ''Cactus Man'', c. 1882, Charcoal on paper, The Ian Woodner Family Collection
References
Bibliography
* Russell T. Clement, ''Four French Symbolists: A Sourcebook on Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and Maurice Denis,'' Greenwood Press, 1996, & *Jodi Hauptman and Marina Van Zuylen, ''Beyond the Visible: The Art of Odilon Redon,'' 2005, & *Andre Mellerio, ''Odilon Redon,'' 1968, ASIN B0007DNIKO *Odilon Redon and Alfred Werner, ''The Graphic Works of Odilon Redon'', Dover, 1969, *Odilon Redon and Alfred Werner, ''The Graphic Works of Odilon Redon'', (Dover Pictorial Archive), 2005, & *Margret Stuffmann, ''Odilon Redon: As in a Dream,'' 2007, &External links
*odilonredon.net
– Online biography and pictures of Odilon Redon
– Links to Redon's works
The Athenaeum
– Extensive list and images of Redon's works
Museum Syndicate
– Odilon Redon Gallery at Museum Syndicate
Web Museum
– Biography and images of Redon's works *
MoMA Exhibition
– "Beyond the Visible – The Art of Odilon Redon" – MoMA exhibition (October 2005 – January 2006)
www.odilon-redon.org
– Site with 322 images by Odilon Redon
– Timeline of Redon's life
Redon's Cats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redon, Odilon 1840 births 1916 deaths Artists from Bordeaux 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 19th-century French engravers 20th-century French engravers 19th-century French lithographers 20th-century French lithographers Post-impressionist painters French Symbolist painters French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Recipients of the Legion of Honour French draughtsmen 20th-century French printmakers 19th-century French male artists