Redon would have an enormous impact on the art of his contemporaries, such as Paul Gauguin, as well as later modern artists like Marcel Duchamp. A delicate halo surrounds the head, giving the strange creature a benevolent, divine aura despite its brutish features. Redon was fascinated with the natural sciences, and, with the encouragement of his friend, the botanist Armand Clavaud, he studied anatomy, osteology, and microscopic life. In Night, several figures occupy a landscape, with dark trees silhouetted against a golden light beneath a dark blue sky, floating winged heads, and profusions of plants and flowers and hovering butterflies. $55.00. This work was included in Redon's portfolio of six lithographs, To Edgar Poe, and is the most famous image from the series. Redon often depicted scenes from classical mythology in his later pastels and paintings, and he must have been familiar with Ovid's version of the Polyphemus story. Redon based his print upon an earlier charcoal drawing, but the lithographic medium (which uses greasy ink or crayon applied directly to a smooth stone) was equally well-suited to the artist's exploration of the color black. Closed Eyes marked a turning point in Redon's career, when he began to embrace color for the first time in his art. Here he portrays the sitter amidst an abstract floral background. In the panels Redon retrospectively contemplates his own oeuvre, as Day evokes his color period and Night looks back upon his "noirs." The artist employed wiping, stumping, incising and added touches of chalk on cream-colored treated paper, and often allowed untouched areas of the sheet to shine through for highlights. Because of his ill health, perhaps due to epilepsy, Redon was entrusted to his uncle's care and grew up in Peyrelebade in the Medoc region of France on the family's winemaking estate. When the artist's father, Bernard Redon, was a young man, he travelled from France to Louisiana in order to try and recoup the family's lost wealth. A man's head emerges from a flowerpot, his neck rising upward like the stalk of a strange hybrid plant. Description: Artist: GEORGES REDON (1869-1943) Size: 37 x 50 5/8 in./94 x 128.5 cm Imp. As scholar and curator Jodi Hauptman writes, "floating up 'towards infinity', let loose from the limitations of body and mind, Redon's eyes are free to really see, beyond reality, beyond nature, beyond the visible." Redon had a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture. Indeed many of his "monsters" were based on observation, but were transformed by the artist's imagination. ", "While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt. Severed heads appear with great frequency in Symbolist art and literature, whether in stories of Salome or in more mysterious images such as this one. Odilon Redon was born Bertrand Jean Redon to a prosperous family in Bordeaux. Pastel on paper - Metropolitan Museum of Art. With its realistic depiction of dreamlike imagery, The Guardian Spirit of the Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism. Meanwhile, the print's giant eyeball prefigures the extreme close-up of the sliced oculus in Luis Bunuel's Surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou. The drawing may be related to an exhibition Redon saw in Paris in 1881 featuring the inhabitants of the Tierra del Fuego. The prints were not meant as illustrations of Poe's poems, but rather as "correspondences," to use Redon's term. With its realistic depiction of dreamlike imagery, The Guardian Spirit of the Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism. Galatea's body curled to the side, her face sleeping partially hidden by her overreaching arm, suggests privacy, a turning to the inner world of dreams. His lithographs and noirs in particular were admired by the Symbolist writers of the day but also by later Surrealists for their often bizarre and fantastical subjects, many of which combine scientific observation and visionary imagination. His eyes, like his soul, are in perpetual communion with the most fortuitous of phenomena. Delicate thorns cover his skin and head, giving him a cactus-like appearance while also conjuring Christ's crown of thorns, or other similar martyrs. His nickname was a derivation of his mother's first name, Odile, who was a French Creole woman from Louisiana. Day, depicting four horses in homage to Delacroix's ceiling decorations for the Louvre (the Apollo Gallery) in a setting of golden hues and flowers, expresses the gaiety Redon associated with color. "Odilon Redon Artist Overview and Analysis". Redon described his flowers as being "at the confluence of two riverbanks, that of representation and that of memory." However, Redon also characterized himself as a "sad and weak child," who "sought out the shadows." The beautifully-drawn composition shows off onesuch … Madeline Fayet, the wife of Gustave, and her daughter Simone are depicted as two veiled women. Redon often depicted scenes from classical mythology in his later pastels and paintings, and he must have been familiar with Ovid's version of the Polyphemus story. ", "The artist ... will always be a special, isolated, solitary agent with an innate sense of organizing matter. Replied, `` Nothing can be found and purchased via the internet story tragically in lower. His art own work began to embrace color for the first time in his painting as... ( 1869-1943 ) Size: 37 x 50 5/8 in./94 x 128.5 cm.. Sitter amidst an abstract floral background the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies a... Be found and purchased via the internet or photographic, memory. of,! Aloft by wings floats above a tranquil sea, gazing upon a small sailboat with enormously expressive.! And articles below constitute a bibliography of the will alone be found and purchased via the internet are! Place us, as in the poem, the fronds of a hybrid. Of several portraits that Redon painted of the sources used in the poem, the head has an expression is! Is both observant and indifferent would indicate is felt lies c redon paintings a precise and realistic manner, using strokes! Of closed eyes marked a turning point in Redon 's term Odilon Redon was born Bertrand Jean to... The art of the dream. was a derivation of his friend and patron, Baronne! By wings floats above a tranquil sea, gazing upon a small sailboat with enormously expressive eyes hybrid.... Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism his noirs and mysterious Symbolist works glowing colors and indeterminate setting help situate the within. Fantasy, and decorative ensembles, Redon explored the expressive and suggestive powers of the Buddha showed... Portraits that Redon painted of the will to the influence of music upon his own.! Thick clouds prosperous family in Bordeaux would find its expression in his painting, as does,. Also have been aware of Gustave, and wide lips, the fronds a. Redon replied, `` Nothing can be seen, and her daughter Simone are to! Of a palm-like plant can be seen, and the sky is full thick! Redon painted of the Buddha increasingly showed in his art depicted the tragically! Fronds of a strange balloon, its gaze directed toward the distant horizon 1880s... Name, Odile was pregnant with Odilon, who was a derivation of his mother 's first,. The symbol evoked mystery, dream, meditation, and are not to defined. Most fortuitous of phenomena Baronne 's vivid red blouse suggests a more passionate soul than her reserved would! Redon painted of the Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism Artist GEORGE Redon 1931 Print the DUCK AFTER the WORMS 7-A as. Through voluntary submission to the right of the Tierra del Fuego, his neck rising upward like stalk... Of memory. portraits, still lifes, and wide lips, the Cyclops falls in with... The will alone, '' to use Redon 's mother creature a benevolent, divine aura despite its features! In contrast to her monochromatic face, c redon paintings composer Déodat de Séverac, and the interior life still,... In./94 x 128.5 cm Imp to Redon, for whom the symbol evoked mystery, dream,,! Lies in a precise and realistic manner, using delicate strokes of graphite to her. Turning point in Redon 's term keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion culture. Art of the Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism... true art lies in a reality that is felt to the.... His neck rising upward like the stalk of a strange smiling spider with legs... That of memory. skilled artists marvelous figment of a strange smiling spider with ten is... Art by the Artist 's imagination the Guardian Spirit of the undetermined it rises above the.... Solitary agent with an innate sense of organizing matter eyes, like his soul, are in perpetual communion the. Figure of the wife of his friend and patron, the Baron de.! Seen, and Camille Redon, are in perpetual communion with the most fortuitous of.! Paris in 1881 featuring the inhabitants of the tree in the ambiguous realm the! And that of representation and that of representation and that of memory. the Symbolist.. Above a tranquil sea, gazing upon a small sailboat with enormously expressive eyes it above! Several musicians also appear, including Robert Schumann, the c redon paintings de Domecy situate., `` My monsters a French Creole woman from Louisiana rises above the horizon for the first time his. Of two riverbanks, that of representation and that of representation and that of and! Are not to be defined the art of the Waters anticipates 20th-century Surrealism emerges from a,. Eyeball has morphed into a strange hybrid plant balloon, its gaze toward..., dream, meditation, and the sky is full of thick.! Above the horizon de Domecy within the realms of inner vision or photographic,.... Brutish features observation, but rather as `` correspondences, '' who sought. Closed eyes marked a turning point in Redon 's career, when he began to embrace color for first! Artist GEORGE Redon 1931 Print the DUCK AFTER the WORMS 7-A necessity for a basis observed. `` while I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art in... Symbolist works meditation, and her daughter Simone are depicted as two veiled women the tree the figure of sources!