Title: Bouquet de fleurs
Artist: Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916)
Medium: pastel on paper laid down on board
Dimensions: 49.3 x 62.9 cm
Description
Entering his sixties at the dawn of the 20th century, Odilon Redon embarked on an ambitious new phase, decisively turning towards color after his early recognition for charcoal “noirs.” Following successful presentations of pastels at galleries in the late 1890s, his 1900 exhibition at Durand-Ruel, featuring only colored works, marked a definitive artistic transition.
“Bouquet de fleurs,” created around 1905, belongs to a series centered on a distinctive globular blue vase. Influenced by Symbolist poetry and Nabi decorative theories, Redon elevated color to his primary expressive means. Floral arrangements became ideal vehicles for chromatic experimentation, perfectly suited to showcase the iridescent qualities of pastel—a medium he revitalized with modern brilliance.
The garden at his Bièvres residence provided endless inspiration. Redon often selected blossoms himself, describing them as “fragile perfumed beings, exquisite prodigies of light.” His bouquets balance natural observation with imaginative invention, incorporating “choice flowers of fantasy no gardener ever saw.” This orchestration of luxuriance prefigured his late decorative ensembles. As critic Klaus Berger noted, the flower pieces “constitute the red thread running through his late art.”
Triumphs at the 1904 Salon d’Automne and his 1906 Durand-Ruel exhibition, fueled by floral compositions, secured his reputation as a master of color. These works attracted commissions for large decorative projects, cementing his legacy both as the poet of mysterious noirs and a sovereign colorist. In 1909, Redon reflected: “If the art of an artist is the song of his life… I must have hit a happy note in color.”
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 3200 x 2491 pixels
Image Size: 478 KB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
