Odilon Redon           

Life: 1840 – 1916 (1)

Country: France

Style(s): Symbolism (2)

 Works: Saint John (1892)

              Le bateau rouge (1912)

              The Cyclops (1914)

Fun Fact: Until he was in his fifties, he worked almost exclusively in black and white (charcoal drawings and lithographs), developing 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 unknown until the publication of J.K. Huysmans's novel, A Rebours(1884), about a disenchanted aristocrat who lives in a private world of perverse delights and collects Redon's drawings. With his mention in this classic expression of decadence, Redon too became associated with the movement (3).

         You find Odilon Redon in his studio. Unlike many other artists you have visited, none of his works, or even copies of them, line the walls. Instead, he sits in a bare room and stares into space. You introduce yourself and immediately like him.

            Redon tells you the story of his fame. He claims that he isn’t a great artist—there are many less well known artists whose works are better than his own. It is just luck he says. That is why all things happen. Luck and coincidence. Until he was in his fifties, he explains, he worked almost exclusively in black and white (charcoal drawings and lithographs) developing 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. However bizarre his work was, it captured the interest of few and so he lived the life of a poor, struggling artist until…

            J. K. Huysmans published a novel by the name of A Rebours in 1884. The hero of the novel is a disenchanted aristocrat who lives in a private world of perverse delights and collects Redon's drawings. With his mention in this classic expression of decadence, Redon too became associated with the movement (3). And so, Redon became famous. It was

not his talent that made him famous--just a bit of luck that an author liked his work enough to include it in a novel which then became well-known and subsequently led to Redon’s fame.

And he said my coming to him was luck too. He understands the connection between artists and time. Everything is influenced by that which comes before. Nothing really ends—an art movement does not fit between certain dates and it cannot be assigned artists who only created art in that style. Redon explains that every art movement is either a continuation of the one before it or else a reaction to the one before it. For example, symbolism is only a continuation of Romanticism. And so, everything is connected, and if you wish to find Chucky, the best way is to follow the path back through time and through the series of artists until you find him. He suggests that you try one of the English Romantic painters, either John Constable or Joseph Mallord William Turner.  Redon says that his Symbolist art is just a continuation of English Romanticism (2).