Odilon Redon
|
|
Odilon Redon (April 22, 1840 – July 6, 1916) was a symbolist painter, born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France.
Redon started drawing as a very young child, and at the age of 10 he was awarded a drawing prize at school. At age 15, he began to study drawing but on the insistence of his father switched to architecture. Any career in architecture ended when he failed to pass the entrance exams at Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts but eventually he would study there under Jean-Léon Gerôme (1824-1904).
Back home in his native Bordeaux, he took up sculpture and was instructed in etching and lithography by Rodolphe Bresdin (1822-1885).
However, his artistic career was interrupted when he joined the army in 1870 to serve in the Franco-Prussian War.
Odilon_Redon_003.jpg
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. Still, Redon remained relatively unknown until the appearance in 1884 of a cult novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans titled, A rebours (Against Nature). The story featured a decadent aristocrat who collected Redon's drawings.
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 Les Nabis at Durand-Ruel's.
In 1903 he was awarded the Legion of Honor.
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.
In 1923 Mellerio published: Odilon Redon: Peintre Dessinateur et Graveur.
Selected works
- Guardian Spirit of the Waters - (1878)
- The Winged Man
- Cactus Man - (1881)
- The Crying Spider - (1881)
- The Raven - (1882)
- Les Origines - (1883)
- Beatrice - (1885)
- Araignée (Spider) - (1887)
- La Tentation de Saint Antoine - (1888)
- A Gustave Flaubert - (1889)
- Les Fleurs du Mal - (1890)
- Les yeux clos (Closed Eyes) - (1890)
- Songes - (1891)
- The Golden Cell - (1892)
- The Druidess - (1893)
- Mystical Knight (Oedipus and the Sphinx) - (1894)
- Pegasus - (1900)
- Woman with a Yellow Bodice - (1900)
- Ophelia - (1902)
- Flowers - (1903)
- Flower Clouds - (1903)
- Le Bouddha (The Buddha) - (1904)
- Head of Orpheus - (1905)
- Red Boat with Blue Sail - (1907)
- Deux jeunes filles en fleurs (Two Young Girls Among Flowers) - (1908)
- Homage to Leonardo da Vinci - (1908)
- The Red Sphinx - (1910)
- Parsifal - (1911)
- La coquille (The Seashell) - (1912)
- Profile and Flowers - (1912)
- The Cyclops - (1914)
Template:Commonscatde:Odilon Redon fr:Odilon Redon it:Odilon Redon he:אודילון רדון nl:Odilon Redon ja:オディロン・ルドン sv:Odilon Redon