Odilon REDON 1840-1916

Master of Symbolism and Poet of Color

Born in Bordeaux in 1840, Odilon Redon was one of the leading figures of French Symbolism. After an early period dominated by drawing and his celebrated Noirs (works in black color executed in ink, charcoal, pencil, and lithography), populated with dreamlike and fantastical visions, he turned increasingly toward color from the 1890s onward.

Working with pastel, oil, and distemper, he developed a more luminous artistic language, filled with flowers, mythological subjects, and imagery inspired by dreams and the imagination.

Admired by the Nabis and by many of the foremost collectors of his time, Redon occupies a unique position between Symbolism, modernity, and the beginnings of certain twentieth-century artistic explorations. He died in Paris in 1916, leaving behind a deeply original body of work in which imagination and inner perception take precedence over the faithful representation of the visible world.