Odilon Redon: The master of French symbolism

Odilon Redon was a prominent French symbolist painter, engraver and draftsman, born under the name Bertrand-Jean Redon in the city of Bordeaux on April 20, 1840.

He was born into a wealthy family. His father, Bertrand Redon, made a fortune as a wine merchant and his mother, Marie Guérin, was an amateur French artist. Although the couple lived for a long time in the United States, after Redon's birth, they decided to make the trip back to France.

Vase - Odilon Redon

Redón acquired a taste for drawing from an early age, however, he began to study it more formally at the age of 15 when he entered the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts . In 1859 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, one of the most important art schools in France, where he studied painting for a brief time under the tutelage of the famous artist Jean-Leon Jerome .

In 1870, at the end of his time in the Franco-Prussian War, he returned to Paris to work almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography. It was then that he began to develop a particular style that was closer to symbolism . He became a master of this style in which he created paintings in dark tones, which were called noirs , works that featured monstrous figures, mythological beings and surreal landscapes.

Flora - Odilon Redon

By 1890, Redon began experimenting with color through oil and pastel paintings. They showed a much softer and brighter color palette, in contrast to the black and white drawing of his previous noirs.

This new perspective allowed the artist to discover other ways to express his fanciful and imaginary visions, and “make the invisible visible” through drawings and still lifes that showed a nascent fascination with nature (flowers and landscapes) and the spiritual.

Vase of flowers - Odilon Redon

His work was of great influence among important artists who portrayed the world of dreams and the subconscious, such as Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst, and today his work is considered an important example of the Symbolist movement in art, being studied by its originality and depth in its images.

Find the collection of Odilon Redon vases in Pasquín version, through our website, www.tiendapasquin.cl.