Title: Vase de fleurs
Artist: Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 61.1 x 50.1 cm
Description
After 1900, in his sixties, Redon embarked on his major series of flower paintings in oil and pastel. This marked a departure from the dark, fantastical visions of his earlier noirs. As noted, “All tensions relaxed… The demons have retired.” Influenced by Denis’s decorative theories, the Nabis, and Signac’s color research, he turned his focus to the purity of artistic means. Color became his primary concern, and floral subjects provided an ideal field for chromatic experimentation.
Guided by his botanist friend Armand Clavaud and inspired by the garden at his country home in Bièvres, Redon saw flowers as “fragile perfumed beings, exquisite prodigies of light.” These still-lifes served as stepping stones to his great late decorations, forming the “red thread” running through his final period.
The vibrant tints of pastel and the tactile quality of oil paint found perfect expression in these works. Some compositions retain a naturalistic setting; others, like the present painting, place the bouquet in a flattened, dreamlike space, evoking the decorative aspect he admired in Asian art. Japanese woodcuts helped him achieve a new symphonic richness and harmonic purity.
These floral works brought Redon significant recognition. They represent a bright, chromatic movement in the song of his artistic life.
Image Download
Image Dimensions: 2639 x 3200 pixels
Image Size: 719 KB
Image Format: JPG
Print Resolution: 300 dpi
Download Format: ZIP Archive
License: Public Domain, Free for Commercial Use
