Odilon Redon is known for his dreamlike, visionary paintings and drawings that he used to explore fantasy, subconscious, and the imagination. Redon was born in 1840 and spent most of his years from ages 1 to 11 with his uncle and a nanny due to ill health. He began taking drawing lessons at the age of 15 where he discovered the works of Jean-Francois, Millet, Delacroix and more. While studying in Paris during the 1850-1860’s, Redon was introduced to Charles Darwin, Edgar Allen Poe, and others who hugely influenced his works and his ideas of art. His charcoal drawings featured mysterious figures and landscapes that reflected those ideas and explored his involvement in the Franco-Prussian war and the battles of the Loire Valley.
Having endured the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War, Redon was intimately familiar with despair and the shadows of conflict. As France once again teetered on the brink of war, the artist’s generous use of color in Pandora can be read as an attempt to reclaim light and hope. This exhibition reflects that, in his mature mythological and imaginary scenes, Redon granted full freedom to color, floral imagery, and idealized visions of feminine beauty. The comparison between his restrained and later chromatic works thus reveals a profound evolution: from darkness to illumination, from introspection to transcendence, and from despair to an enduring—if fragile—hopefulness.
Odilon Redon, Pegasus and Bellerophon, 1888, charcoal on buff papier bleuté, 21 1/8 × 14 3/16 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 1975.1.686
In Pegasus and Bellerophon, Redon is depicting the mythological, exploring the contours of the human and equine body through smudged charcoal lines that follow curves, angles, and muscle. The human and equine twist into each other, two shapes that meet in the center of Pegasus’ body. Redon was also playing with light and shadow, deepening the value of one wing, while leaving the other nearly translucent. This drawing would have been consistent with Redon’s interest in the mythological, using fictitious characters to express and explore the boundaries of charcoal as well as his own imagination.
Odilon Redon, I saw a flash of light, large and pale, 1986, Lithograph, 17 5/8 x 12 1/2 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 28.81.7(3)
Like Pegasus and Bellerophon, Redon uses black and white to depict a scene pulled from his imagination. I saw a flash of light, large and pale is a lithograph, utilizing the concept that oil and water do not mix to create the relief of what Redon pulled from his mind. The canyon of black behind the ascending staircase is not complete, with hints of background light leaving room for viewer’s imaginations to wonder what sits within. The focal point of the lithograph is the “flash of light” that emanates from the darkness and onto the whitewashed stones of the foreground. Redon utilizes the brightness of white and the inky nothingness of black to create a stark contrast that helps the viewer to see the “flash” of light that Redon saw. He explores the relationships between light and dark and how to depict “flash” in a 2-D moment in time.
Odilon Redon, Armor, 1891, Charcoal and conté crayon, 20 x 14 1/2 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 48.10.1
Redon has returned to the human form with Armor, as well as charcoal, to explore sharp points that surround the figure’s head. The name Armor indicates that the woman is wearing a black sheath of armor and Redon expresses what that could look like mentally for a woman through his use of the dark charcoal against the bright hue of her exposed skin. All that can be seen is the area around her eye and yet it becomes the focal point of Redon’s drawing. The dark block that covers her mouth covers her head as well, but Redon has contrasted the circular shape of her eye and head with the sharp points that stick out from her helmetlike covering. Armor is once again drawing from Redon’s imagination, sketching the shape of a real woman, but making her mute and repulsive through the very armor that the drawing is named after.
Odilon Redon, Madame Arthur Fontaine, 1901, Pastel on paper, 28 1/2 x 22 1/2 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 60.54.
Redon has drastically shifted his style here, moving away from a strictly black and white charcoal palette. He was inspired by Paul Gauguin’s use of color in his art, though Redon proposed and utilized a hybrid color palette, blending new technologies and traditional models of color. Madame is a domestic scene, not one pulled from the imagination, yet imagination swirls down upon her. Her space is invaded by flowers of yellow, green, purple, blue, and white as she sits calmly embroidering. Redon, using color, still shows the contrast between light and dark, with her bright yellow and white dress highlighted against a hazy grey shroud that tinges even the blooming flowers. Here Redon’s imagination and reality collide in a splendid mix of styles and colors.
Odilon Redon, Bouquet of Flowers, 1900-1905, Pastel on paper, 31 5/8 x 25 1/4 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 56.50
Redon was heavily influenced by Darwinian biology and the wonder of the natural world. He combines different types of blooms and greenery, using the contrast of bright flowers and darker stems to create an explosion in the middle of the paper, with a hazy brown atmosphere as the backdrop. Redon’s use of color continued to grow into the 1900’s, and there is little actual black to be seen on the vase or amongst the flowers. The vase also began to show up in many of his pastels, serving as a vessel for his flowers to grow and flex with his growth of color.
Odilon Redon, Vase of Flowers (Pink Background), 1906, Oil on canvas, 28 5/8 x 21 1/4 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 56.50
Redon’s use of the vase in his paintings continued, but the color palette shifted ever more to brighter and lighter colors. Rather than a caramel colored background with a hazy overlay, Redon uses pinks and yellows to create a lighter atmosphere on which he places flowers of various colors and lengths, a bouquet that overflows from the vase and into the surrounding space. The flowers are not randomly placed, but based on identifiable flowers, jeweled in bright colors, further highlighted by the hazy pink and yellow smear of the background. 1905-1906 introduced diplomatic crises to Europe and Redon’s paintings began to reflect what seems to be a search for hope amidst the darkness crowding in.
Odilon Redon, Pandora, 1914, Oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 24 1/2 in., he Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Object Number: 60.19.1
Odilon Redon’s Pandora depicts the mythological figure in a pre-evils-unleashed state, situated in a world where beauty, naïveté, and innocence prevail. Redon’s use of color here is poignant and marks a significant departure from the restrained tonalities of his earlier “noirs.” The cultural moment in which Pandora was created also deeply shaped Redon’s use of color and the hopeful atmosphere that radiates from the painting. In Pandora, innocence remains intact as she cradles the infamous box—still unopened—that will unleash humanity’s suffering and end the Golden Age. On the eve of world war, this work may reflect Redon’s yearning to preserve purity and hope in a world poised to lose both. Comparing Pandora to Vase of Flowers (Pink Background) (1906) reveals this transformation: whereas the earlier work contains color within naturalistic boundaries, Pandora releases it across the entire canvas in radiant abundance.
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