Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon

(1849-1916)

Etude Pour la Chute d’Lcare

(Study for the Fall of Icarus)

£POA

Redon, Odilon (1840-1916). French painter and graphic artist, one of the outstanding figures of Symbolism.

He had a retiring life, first in his native Bordeaux, then from 1870 in Paris, and until he was in his fifties he worked almost exclusively in black and white, in charcoal drawings and lithographs. In these he developed a highly distinctive repertoire of weird subjects (strange amoeboid creatures, insects, and plants with human heads and so on), influenced by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. He remained virtually unknown to the public until the publication of J.K. Huysmans’s celebrated novel A Rebours in 1884; the book’s hero, a disenchanted aristocrat who lives in a private world of perverse delights, collects Redon’s drawings, and with his mention in this classic expression of decadence, Redon too became associated with the movement.

During the 1890s Redon turned to painting and revealed remarkable powers as a colourist that had lain dormant. Much of his early life had been unhappy, but after undergoing a religious crisis in the early 1890s and a serious illness in 1894-95, he was transformed into a much more buoyant and cheerful personality, expressing himself in radiant colours in mythological scenes and flower paintings. He showed equal facility in oils and pastel. The flower pieces, in particular, were much admired by Matisse, and the Surrealists regarded Redon as one of their precursors. He was a distinguished figure by the end of his life, although still a very private person

This is an important work being a study for the original pastel at present held by the Rothschild Art Foundation.

Provenance; Anonymous sale, Hotel Drouot, 8^th of December 1937, Lot 26. Anonymous sale, Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, 16^th December 1952, no.1300. Christie’s London, Impressionist/Modern Works on paper, 25^th of June 2008.

Exhibited, labels verso; Winthertur, Kunstmuseum, Redon, 1919, number 64. Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, Redon, 1920-21, number 64. Paris,Galerie E Druet, Exposition Odilon Redon, 1923,number 291.

Literature; A Wildenstein, Odilon Redon catalogue raisonne de l’oeuvre peint et deddine, vol 1V, Etudes et grandes decorative, Paris, 1998, number 2361 (ill. p. 123)

Odilon Redon

Works by the Artist