Odilon Redon

Galerie Cardo, Paris
Acquis auprès du précédent vers 1973 puis par descendance au propriétaire actuel

Roseline Bacou, Odilon Redon, Paris, 1956, vol. I, mentionné p. 157
Odilon Redon (catalogue d'exposition), Paris, 1956, mentionné p. 58
Klaus Berger, Odilon Redon: Fantasy and colour, Cologne, 1964, no. 425, mentionné p. 213
Alec Wildenstein, Odilon Redon : Catalogue Raisonné de l'œuvre peint et dessiné, vol. I : Portraits et figures, Paris, 1992, no. 318, reproduit p. 132

Executed on wove paper, not laid down but glued to the mount along the extreme edges. As part of the old period mounting, four wooden strips have been affixed along these edges to create a space beween the sheet of paper and the glass. The strips and are held down by very fine nails (approximately 7 on left and right edges and 4 on top and bottom edges). These small fine nails perforate the associated areas of paper under the strips of wood along three of the four extreme edges of the sheet. Additional pinholes, probably made by the artist in the studio, are found at the extreme corners of the sheet as well as one on the middle right edge. The pastel is slightly scuffed in the lower left corner above the signature (visible in the catalogue illustration). The colours have remained very fresh and well-preserved. Examined under ultra-violet light: nothing shows under ultraviolet light. This work is in overall good original condition.
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signed 'ODILON REDON' (lower left), pastel on paper. Executed circa 1905.

Rattaché au mouvement symboliste, l'art d’Odilon Redon témoigne d'une superbe maîtrise de la technique du pastel, qui puise ses sources dans l’art français du XVIIIème siècle. Le renouveau de ce medium débute chez les impressionnistes avec Manet et Degas, mais Redon développe ensuite un style particulier qui évoque un monde habité de spiritualité. Il s’établit alors comme le peintre de la vie intérieure.  Dès 1891, dans son "manifeste sur le Symbolisme" paru dans le Mercure de France, Albert Aurier, critique d’art, saluait en lui le "Sublime voyeur".

Le thème du visage aux yeux clos, comme en contemplation de son paysage intérieur, est typique de l’artiste et renvoie directement aux fameux Yeux clos de la collection du Musée d’Orsay ou encore au magistral pastel d’Ophélie conservé à la Royal Academy of Art de Londres. L’utilisation d’un encadrement ogival souligne cet espace de transition entre les mondes physique et spirituel. La composition est parachevée par un envahissement magistral de fleurs évanescentes. Des fleurs, comme l’écrivait Redon dans son journal "….venues au confluent de deux rivages, celui de la représentation, celui du souvenir." (A Soi-même. Journal (1867-1915), Paris, 1922, p. 115).

Tout l’art de Redon se reflète dans ce magnifique pastel. En recherchant une sensualité extrême de la couleur et de la matière, il dissocie l'utilisation de la forme et de la ligne, il évapore et pulvérise le motif représenté, ouvrant ainsi la voie à la peinture abstraite du XXème siècle. La fameuse couleur bleue pure, non diluée, non mélangée, ici magnifiée par une explosion de corail, de vermillon, de blanc, d'or, d'émeraude, et de rose, devient en réalité le sujet principal de cette œuvre. Cette quête de la sensation par la couleur, de la matière-couleur comme épiphanie du réel, se prolongera puis se radicalisera chez des artistes d'après-guerre tel que Mark Rothko et Yves Klein.   

Associated with the Symbolist movement, the art of Odilon Redon demonstrates a superb mastery of the pastel technique which draws it source from French 18th century art. The Impressionist painters such as Manet or Degas revived this medium, but Redon then developed a particular style which evoked a world inhabited by a deep sense of spirituality. He thus established himself as the painter of inner life. From 1891, in his “manifesto on Symbolism” published in Mercure de France, Albert Aurier, art critic, paid tribute to him as the “sublime voyeur”.

The theme of the face with closed eyes, as if in contemplation of its inner landscape, is typical of the artist and refers directly to the famous Yeux clos in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay or even the masterful pastel Ophélie kept at the Royal Academy of Art in London. The use of a arched window-like frame emphasises this space of transition between the physical and the spiritual world. The composition is completed by a majestic invasion of evanescent flowers. Flowers, as Redon described in his diary “…come from the convergence of two shores, that of representation, that of memory”. (A Soi-même. Journal (1867-1915), Paris, 1922, p.115).

All of Redon’s art is reflected in this magnificent pastel. In seeking an extreme sensuality of colour and matter, the artist disassociates the use of form from line. He evaporates and pulverises the represented subject, thus opening the way to 20^th century abstract painting. The famous pure blue colour, undiluted and unmixed, is magnified here by an explosion of coral, vermilion, white, gold, emerald and pink, and thus becomes, in reality, the main subject of this work. This quest for sensation through colour, for matter-colour as an epiphany of the real, is continued in a more radical vein with the work of post-war artists such as Mark Rothko and Yves Klein.