Odilon Redon
France,
1840-1916 Les Oeillets (Carnations)
Pastel on paper
23 1/4 x 19 1/4 in.
The Aaron M. and Clara Weitzenhoffer Collection, 2000
Until Odilon Redon was in his fifties,
he worked almost exclusively in black and white, concentrating on
charcoal drawings and lithographs of subjects influenced by Edgar
Allen Poe. Much of Redon's early life had been unhappy, but after
undergoing a religious crisis in the early 1890s and a serious illness
in 1894-95, the artist became more cheerful, expressing himself
in radiant colors.
Henri Matisse admired Redon's paintings
and pastel drawings of flowers, and the Surrealists regarded the
elder artist as one of their precursors.
