Artist Biography: Odilon Redon

Artist Biography: Odilon Redon

A concise biography about Redon's life and work.

Odilon Redon
French, 1840-1916
A leading artist of the French symbolist movement, Odilon Redon wrote, "All my originality consists in making the most improbable creatures live like human beings, according to the laws of probability, as far as possible making the logic of what is visible minister to what is invisible."

After studying academic painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Redon began making drawings and prints of imaginary and usually macabre subjects. He subsequently produced thirteen sets of lithographs with religious, literary, and symbolist themes. After 1880, with the encouragement of Paul Gauguin and members of the Nabis, Redon turned to oils and pastels, exhibiting in the eighth and final impressionist group show in 1886. In his late work, color became increasingly important, and his imagery is often suggestive of dreams and hallucinations.

		Andromeda (1904-10) Odilon Redon
		Flower Clouds (c. 1903) Odilon Redon
		Sita (c. 1893) Odilon Redon
		Guardian Spirit of the Waters (1878) Odilon Redon
		Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor) (1880) Odilon Redon
		Still Life with Flowers (1905) Odilon Redon

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