Lot 104
  • 104

Odilon Redon

Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
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Description

  • Odilon Redon
  • Le Silence
  • Signed Od. R. (lower right)
  • Watercolor, gouache, pastel and pencil on paper
  • 8 1/2 by 6 7/8 in.
  • 21.5 by 17.5 cm

Provenance

De Hauke & Co., New York (acquired circa 1928)
Jacques Dubourg, Paris
Acquired from the above in May 1954

Exhibited

New York, De Hauke & Co., Exhibition of Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Watercolours, Lithographs by Odilon Redon, 1928, no. 42
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Paintings, Pastels and Drawings by Odilon Redon 1840-1916, 1928-29, no. 34
Miami, Lowe Gallery & Palm Beach, The Society of the Four Arts, Odilon Redon 1840-1916, 1955, no. 30

Literature

Alec Wildenstein, Odilon Redon, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Portraits et figures, vol. I, Paris, 1992, no. 413, illustrated p. 165

Condition

Work is in excellent condition. Executed on cream laid paper. The remnants of tape from a previous mounting are affixed to the extreme edges of the verso of the sheet. The sheet is slightly time darkened and there is a mat stain at the bottom left edge. A pindot sized loss has occurred to the extreme left edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In the early 1890s, Odilon Redon received an increasing amount of attention from collectors and critics, leading to his first one-man show in 1894 at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. It was during this time that color began to take center stage in Redon’s output and, from then on, his pieces in pastels, watercolors and oils would be more closely associated with his oeuvre than the noirs he built his reputation on in his earlier years. Redon himself celebrated the use of color in his later works, writing to his friend Picard: "I feel the coming of the hour where time doubles its price, the instant where the artist knows himself and no longer goes astray. Master of my means—in a small domain—I experience more than ever the pleasures which work procures. With pastel I have recovered the hope of giving my dreams greater plasticity, if possible. Colors contain a joy which relaxes me; besides, they sway me towards something different and new. Yet I could not speak to you of my projects; one doesn’t know the art of tomorrow" (quoted in John Rewald “Odilon Redon,” in Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin (exhibition catalogue), The Museum of Modern Art, New York & The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1961-62, p. 39).

Redon proved to be an inspiration for many younger artists including Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp and the Nabis. Richard Hobbs discusses the interest in Redon shown by the Nabis: “What the Nabis actually so admired in Redon was not only the technical quality of his works but also his ability to suggest the mysterious and the spiritual. Bonnard later summed this up succinctly: ‘What strikes me most in his work is the coming together of two almost opposite qualities: very pure plastic substance and very mysterious expression. Our whole generation is under his charm and benefits from his advice’” (Richard Hobbs, Odilon Redon, London, 1977, p. 84). After his revolutionary showing of Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 at the 1913 Armory Show (where 38 of Redon’s works were also exhibited), Marcel Duchamp was asked whether his art or that of his contemporaries was derived from the legacy of Cézanne. He replied, "I am sure that most of my friends would say so and I know that he [Cézanne] is a great man. Nevertheless, if I am to tell what my own point of departure has been, I should say that it was the art of Odilon Redon” (quoted in John Rewald, ibid., p. 44).

The present work directly relates to an oil of the same title, Le Silence (see fig. 1), which was exhibited during the 1913 Armory Show where it was purchased by Lillie P. Bliss who later bequeathed it to the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Discussing the imagery and theme of silence in Redon’s art, Richard Hobbs states: “Silence here is not associated with fear or pessimism, but with the suggestion of reflective and spiritual experience. Silence negates the intrusions of the contingent and objective world, giving rein to that undefined state of thoughtfulness that the idealist art of Redon seeks to provoke. In this respect, silence is comparable to another important them of Redon’s later works, the theme of closed eyes. Both silence and closed eyes indicate that Redon is concerned with the mind rather than the senses, the solitary reflections of the individual rather than the recordings of objective phenomena” (Richard Hobbs, ibid., pp. 158-59).