Title: Tête de femme rouge, entourée d’une germination de fleurs
Artist: Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916)
Medium: pastel on paper mounted on cardboard
Dimensions: 47.5 x 63 cm
Date Created: circa 1901
Description
Odilon Redon’s Head of a Woman in Red, Surrounded by Burgeoning Flowers, executed around 1901, is a pivotal work from his color period. From approximately 1893, the artist moved away from the macabre and nightmarish quality of his early “Noirs” towards a more expansive revelation of the world. This pastel embodies the suggestive abstraction Redon explored at the close of the 19th century, resonating within the international context of Art Nouveau.
Space, forms, and subjects float, open to cycles of visual and sensory metamorphosis. The work evokes celestial phenomena—from fireworks and nebulae to the aurora borealis—and may refer to psychological experiences like phosphenes and hypnagogic visions. Its delicately contemplative nature stems from Redon’s exploration of the mystical dimension within human aspiration, an affirmation of the idealism central to French intellectual circles of the era. This aesthetic turned its back on naturalism, prioritizing emotional transposition, and served as a guiding inspiration for contemporary artists, including the Nabis. As Maurice Denis noted, Redon stood at the root of all aesthetic innovations of his time.
Acquired by Ambroise Vollard in the year of its creation, the work has remained unseen until now.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 3200 x 2369 pixels
Image Size: 4.25 MB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
