Redon, Odilon (ôdēlôN` rədôN`), 1840–1916, French painter and lithographer. He studied in Paris under Gérôme. Later his friend Fantin-Latour taught him lithography, but he was most influenced by Rodolphe Bresdin, an older artist who had created a world of fantastic imagery. Redon's first volume of lithographs,
Dans le rêve, appeared in 1879. After 1889 he devoted himself to oil painting and especially pastels. Symbolically conceived, his work is related to that of writers such as Poe, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé. An artist of lyrical and mystical vision, he created translucent flower pieces and often depicted literary subjects. Redon stands as a precursor to surrealism, with his mysterious evocations of a dreamworld. Characteristic of his paintings are
Les Yeux clos (Louvre) and
Le Silence (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City). Fine examples of his graphic work can be found at the Art Institute, Chicago, and at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.
Bibliography
See his journal, À Soi-Même (1922); Graphic Works (tr. 1913, repr. 1969); studies by K. Berger (1965), J. Selz (1971), and S. F. Eisenman (1992).
Redon, Odilon
Odilon Redon, self-portrait, 1904; in a private collection.
(credit: Archives Photographiques, Paris)
(born April 20, 1840, Bordeaux, Fr.—died July 6, 1916, Paris) French painter, lithographer, and etcher. He studied under
Jean-Léon Gérôme and learned lithography under
Henri Fantin-Latour. He came to be associated with the
Symbolist painters. His oils and pastels, chiefly still lifes with flowers, won him admiration as a colourist from
Henri Matisse and other painters. His prints (nearly 200 in all), which explore fantastic, often macabre themes, foreshadowed
Surrealism and
Dada.
Redon, Odilon Born Apr. 20, 1840, in Bordeaux; died July 6, 1916, in Paris. French graphic artist and painter.
In 1861, Redon entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he was a student of J. L. Gérôme. He was associated with the writers of the symbolist school and with the artists known as the nabis. On the basis of natural forms, Redon created a world of fantastic creatures. By introducing realistic details into this world, he combined dream and reality and thereby made a pathological and mystic statement. Representative works by Redon include the following series of lithographs: In the World of the Daydream (1879), To Edgar Allan Poe (1882), Night (1886), and The Apocalypse of St. John (1889). Redon also painted delicate and decorative still lifes.
REFERENCE
Berger, K. Odilon Redon: Phantasie und Farbe. Cologne, 1964.
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