763. Odilon Redon (1840-1916), French,

Closed Eyes, 1890. Oil on canvas

remounted on board, 44 x 36 cm.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Symbolism.

 

 

Odilon Redon

(1840 Bordeaux – 1916 Paris)

 

Redon started drawing as a young child, and at the age of ten he was awarded a drawing prize at school. At age fifteen, he began to study drawing but, upon the insistence of his father, switched to architecture. Any career in architecture ended when he failed to pass the entrance exams at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris but eventually he studied there under Jean-Léon Gerôme. Back home in his native Bordeaux, he took up sculpture, and Rodolphe Bresdin instructed him in etching and lithography. However, joining the army in 1870 to serve in the Franco-Prussian War interrupted his artistic career. At the end of the war he moved to Paris, working almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography. It would not be until 1878 before his work gained any recognition with Guardian Spirit of the Waters, and he published his first album of lithographs titled Dans le Rêve in 1879. In the 1890s, he began to use pastel and oils, which dominated his works for the rest of his life. In 1899, he exhibited with the Nabis at Durand-Ruel’s. In 1903 he was awarded the Legion of Honour. His popularity increased when a catalogue of etchings and lithographs was published by André Mellerio in 1913 and that same year, he was given the largest single representation at the New York Armory Show.