Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Odilon Redon was a leading French artist of the Symbolism movement, a European movement at the end of the nineteenth century. He depicted a variety of motifs, including dreams, floral still lifes, landscapes, and mythological scenes. Early in his career, he worked almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography, works referred to as noirs. He made some 30 etchings and 170 lithographs over a period of twenty years his life and from 1870 to 1890, he predominantly worked with charcoal. The noirs exemplify Redon’s fascination with the impact and resonance of black. As with this lithograph, he printed almost exclusively using chine appliqué. Starting in the 1890s, he began to use pastel to add color to his charcoal works.

Redon was a symbolist, not a surrealist. He was connected to literature such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire and influenced by artists like Gustave Moreau and Goya, to whom in fact he dedicated a series of prints. He also developed a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture, which increasingly showed in his work. He was an unsuccessful art student at first. Very slowly, however, he taught himself the discipline of printmaking. It was his atmospheric and symbolist prints, with their dark and cloudy ground and their enigmatic figures, that finally began to win him some public attention. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery in London.

I was immediately drawn to his mysterious and disturbing art style and aesthetics because of how his work was so original and different from what other artists were creating during his time. Redon was a great artist who was a contemporary of the Impressionists without being one; who was close to Symbolism without letting himself become trapped by their lively aesthetic approach. I definitely did not expect to see this creepy and ominous yet stunning psychedelic art style from the Post-Impressionism time period. Although I probably would be too scared to look at his drawings in the middle of the night!

Sources:

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/redon-odilon/

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/odilon-redon.htm

http://www.artnet.com/artists/odilon-redon/