After Odilon Redon: Heads with Flowers

Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916) After: oil on paper, signed bottom right, framed. Odilon Redon was a prints man, draftsman, and painter best known for his brightly colored still lifes, which oftentimes intertwined flowers and landscapes with symbolist imagery. Initially intending, at his father’s behest, to study architecture, he was unable to pass the entrance exam to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but remained in Paris, familiarizing himself with the intellectual circles of the city and honing his ideas. Upon returning to Bordeaux, he formally took on etching and lithography under the direction of Rodolphe Bresdin, an eccentric artist of the area. Although his early work was exclusively in black and white, his enduring friendship with Paul Gauguin and Maurice Denis greatly influenced his professional work, and by 1890, he was creating the colorful compositions for which he is remembered.