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Gain access to this incredible resource through either a monthly or a yearly subscription and search the entire collection from your desktop, compare multiple images side by side and zoom into the minute details of the images. Visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica for more information on the collection, click on the link below the revolving thumbnail to the right, or email us at amica@luna-img.com . Creator Name: Redon, Odilon Creator Nationality: European; French Creator Role: Artist Creator Dates/Places: 1840 - 1916 Biography: A leader of the symbolist movement in France, Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux in 1840 and grew up in the surrounding region. During his early years he studied drawing, architecture, and the violin. A friendship with Armand Clavaud, a local botanist and philosopher, stimulated Redon's passion for romantic art and literature. In 1864, after a brief and discouraging period of instruction with Gérôme (q.v.) in Paris, Redon returned to Bordeaux, where he studied printmaking with Rodolphe Bresdin (1825-1885). Deploring the emphasis on rational, phenomenal experience in academic and naturalist art, Redon turned for inspiration to the imaginative paintings of Delacroix (q.v.), the prints of Francisco José de Goya (1746-1828), and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.In 1870, after military service in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon settled in Paris and produced his first Noirs. These visionary images, featuring floating eyes and severed heads born aloft on wings, reflect Redon's belief in the superiority of the imagination and fantasy, which he considered "the messenger of the unconscious." After producing his initial Noirs in charcoal, Redon discovered a method of transferring his drawings to lithography in 1876. Throughout the 1880s he continued to use charcoal, etching, and lithography as his primary media, and he produced twelve lithography albums before abandoning the genre in the late 1890s.During the 1880s Redon emerged as a leader of the symbolist reaction against impressionism. The publication in 1879 of his first lithographic album, Dans le rêve, followed by his first solo exhibition in 1881, attracted the admiration of J. K. Huysmans, who included illustrations by Redon in his novel ? rebours (1884). Around the same time, Redon developed a personal and artistic relationship with poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Increasingly drawn into the public arena, Redon helped organize the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884. In 1886 he participated in the last impressionist exhibition and began showing with Les XX in Brussels. Redon's antinaturalist, visionary, art inspired many symbolist and Nabi artists, including Gauguin (q.v.) and Vuillard (q.v.). Maurice Denis praised Redon as "our Mallarmé," and in 1892 critic Albert Aurier described Redon as a leader of the new "idealistic" tendency in art.After 1890 the focus of Redon's activity shifted from monochromatic drawings and prints toward exploring color in richly worked pastels. His innovations in luminous color, as seen in the pastel and oil paintings he exhibited at the Galeries Durand-Ruel in 1900 were greatly admired by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and the Fauves. Awarded the Legion of Honor in 1903, Redon continued his leadership role in the avant-garde and in 1904 became a founding member of the Salon d'Automne. In 1913 forty of his works were selected for exhibition in the Armory Show, the most by any artist. Redon died at his home in Paris in the summer of 1916. Gender: M Creator Birth Place: Bordeaux, 20 April 1840 Creator Death Place: Paris, 6 July 1916 Creator Name-CRT: Odilon Redon Title: Fear Title Type: Primary Title: La Peur Title Type: Foreign View: Full View Creation Start Date: 1866 Creation End Date: 1866 Creation Date: 1866 Object Type: Prints Materials and Techniques: etching Dimensions: Sheet: 27.4cm x 35.1cm, Image: 11cm x 20cm, Platemark: 14cm x 22.3cm Inscriptions: signed in green crayon, lower margin: "a J. K. Huysmans / mon ami / Odilon Redon" AMICA Contributor: The Cleveland Museum of Art Owner Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA ID Number: 1998.69 Credit Line: Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland Rights: http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html Provenance: H. M. Petiet, Paris Context: This etching was inspired by a poem called Erlkönig (Elf-King) by the German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749?1832). The poem relates the tale of a father cradling his small son in his arms as they ride through a windy night. The child tries to warn his father that the evil Elf-king is near, lamenting, "My father, my father, his touch is so chill! The Elf-king, the Elf-king has done me an ill!" Comforting the boy, yet disbelieving his fear, the father continues the journey only to find that the child has died.Redon inscribed this print, à J. K. Huysmans, mon ami (to J.K. Huysmans, my friend). The French writer and art critic Joris Karl Huysmans (1848?1907) favored his work, so Redon gave him this particularly rich and beautiful impression.Redon, most famous for his pastels and lithographs, produced only 33 etchings. Half of them were executed during the late 1860s when images of medieval cavaliers on horseback in desolate mountain landscapes dominated his prints. The insignificance of the figures in Fear, alone and small in a barren setting, symbolizes the polarities of life and death, and of hope and despair. AMICA ID: CMA_.1998.69 AMICA Library Year: 2000 Media Metadata Rights: Copyright, The Cleveland Museum of Art AMICA PUBLIC RIGHTS: a) Access to the materials is granted for personal and non-commercial use. b) A full educational license for non-commercial use is available from Cartography Associates at www.davidrumsey.com/amica/institution_subscribe.html c) Licensed users may continue their examination of additional materials provided by Cartography Associates, and d) commercial rights are available from the rights holder. Home
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