Redon2023

T he work of Odilon Redon depicts a world entirely of his own making, where dreams meet reality and fear meets beauty. Fusing elements of Symbolism and Romanticism, Redon’s style has proven enduringly unique and influential. Born on April 20, 1840 to a wealthy Bordeaux family, Redon suffered from illness and epilepsy throughout his childhood. Due to his poor health, he spent a large amount of time separated from his family and living alone at the country estate, surrounded by the dramatic arid landscape (cat. nos. 1, 2 ), and escaping into the literary worlds of Romantic poets such as Edgar Allen Poe, Gustave Flaubert, Baudelaire and Mallarmé. The macabre and fantastical themes found in these writings were incredibly influential on his burgeoning artistic development. Redon began to take drawing classes from artist Stanislas Gorin, who taught by having him copy works by Eugène Delacroix and other French Romantics. But after failing out of the Beaux Arts architecture program, Redon devoted himself to drawing, studying briefly with J. L. Gérôme in Paris in 1863 , then learning lithography as an apprentice to Rodolphe Bresdin in Bordeaux. This connection was important as Redon developed a style in which he combined engraving and charcoal to