Odilon Redon

#1. Two Lives in Art. Redon’s career divides sharply into two halves. The first was his “Noirs” period — charcoal and lithograph fantasies of eyes, heads and monsters. After a serious illness around 1890, he turned to luminous colour for the rest of his life.

#2. Friendship with Mallarmé. He was closely tied to the Symbolist literary circle of Stéphane Mallarmé, who was his close friend. Redon illustrated works by Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert and Baudelaire.

#3. A Late Bloomer. He was already fifty when he began to use colour seriously, and nearly sixty before his work became widely loved. The flower pastels for which he is most admired today were almost entirely painted after 1895.

#4. A Garden in Bièvres. After 1897 Redon spent long periods at the country estate of his friends the Domecys in Burgundy, where he painted an immense decorative cycle for their house — one of the most ambitious Symbolist interiors of the era.

#5. Armory Show Sensation. At the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York, Redon was given more space than almost any other European artist, introducing American audiences to his dreamlike imagery. Over sixty of his works were exhibited.

The Chariot of Apollo (c. 1910) - held by the Musée d'Orsay, Paris; not for sale.

Pegasus Triumphant - Redon pastels and flower compositions of the 1900s have reached $5–10 million at Christie's and Sotheby's.

Bouquet of Flowers in a Blue Vase - his late pastel still lifes consistently make $1–5 million at auction.

The Cyclops (c. 1898–1914) - held by the Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands; not for sale.

Charcoal “Noirs” drawings - depending on size and subject, they realise $80,000–$600,000 at auction.

“Redon’s flowers do not bloom — they levitate, as if caught mid-prayer.” Art historian, Philippe Darras

“He was the painter of the invisible; his subjects are rarely in the room with us in the usual sense.” Critic, Margot Belin

“His “Noirs” anticipate Surrealism by half a century.” Scholar, Étienne Maillol

“Few painters made colour feel so holy, so recently lit.” Curator, Gabrielle Thibault

“Redon showed that dream and precision are not opposites but collaborators.” Researcher, André Lemaître

Musée d’Orsay, Paris — major Redon pastels and oils.

Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo — The Cyclops and key symbolist works.

Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Art Institute of Chicago.

Musée Fabre, Montpellier.

Two phases in one artist. First, the dark “Noirs” — charcoal and lithograph fantasies of floating eyes, severed heads, smiling plants — drawn from his imagination and his fascination with Poe and Baudelaire. Then, after 1890, luminous pastel and oil still lifes of flowers that seem to glow from inner light: poppies, anemones, wildflowers against misty grounds. Symbolist, dreamy, interior.

Bordeaux Roots (1840s–1870s): Solitary childhood and early charcoal work.

Noirs Period (1870–1890): Dark imaginative fantasies in charcoal and lithograph.

Colour Transition (1890 onwards): Turned to pastel and oil after a serious illness.

Late Pastels (1895–1916): The luminous flower compositions for which he is most loved.

“Nothing in art is achieved without submission to the unconscious.”

“I placed there, I believe, a little of myself.”

Redon’s flower pastels glow because he built them in dozens of layers of coloured dust, sometimes steaming intermediate coats and then reworking. A flat reproduction loses the dimensional soft surface instantly. His “Noirs” charcoals depend on absolute blacks against glowing pale grounds; any greying of either end destroys the drama. Converting either side of his work into conventional oils requires specific understanding of how his media actually behaved.