FAMOUS ARTIST BIRTHDAY - ODILON REDON - MINI MASTER SERIES - POST IMPRESSIONIST - SYMBOLIST

FLOWER TREE - MINI MASTER by Sea Dean after Odillon Redon

FLOWER TREE - MINI MASTER by Sea Dean

"Composition: Flowers," by Odilon Redon
 Oil on panel, 21.13 in. x 19.5 in.

FLOWER TREE
MINI MASTER
PAINTING BY SEA DEAN
4" x 4" on canvas panel

To view my Gallery or purchase this painting please visit Daily Paintworks. Larger originals or prints may be available by contacting me.

For this homage to Odillon Redon on his birthday, I decided to play with the palette of "Composition Flowers" without worrying too much about duplicating the painting itself. I simply love the combination of violet, bright red, lemon and lashings of copper and gold. (Trust me, it doesn't show in the image, but there is plenty of metallic on this panel). Odillon loved metallic effects, but avoided the ornate embellishment of Klimt and used it to add light and flow freely throughout his work.

ODILON REDON 

On 20 April 1840, Bertrand-Jean Redon was born to a prosperous family in Bordeaux, Aquitaine. Redon started drawing as a child and at the age of ten he was awarded a drawing prize at school. The boy was nicknamed "Odilon" after his mother, Odile.

At fifteen, he formally studied drawing, but his father insisted he change to architecture. He dropped architecture when he failed the entrance exam at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1864 he studied painting under Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris and then sculpture, etching and lithography under Rodolphe Bresdin.

In 1870 he served in the brief Franco-Prussian War and then moved to Paris to focus on charcoal drawing and lithography. He called these visionary works his noirs, because they were black and white.

Self-Portrait, 1880, Musée d'Orsay

In 1878 his work, "Guardian Spirit of the Waters" gained recognition and in 1879 he published his first set of lithographs, titled Dans le Rêve. Redon remained relatively unknown until 1884 when his work was featured in a cult novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans titled À rebours (Against Nature). The story featured a decadent aristocrat who collected Redon's drawings.

In the 1890s he moved on to pastel and oil. In 1899, he exhibited with the Nabis at Durand-Ruel's. In 1903 he was awarded the Legion of Honor.

His popularity increased in 1913 when a catalogue of etchings and lithographs was published he was given the largest representation at the New York Armory Show.

Although prolific, Redon has remained relatively unknown because his work was so different to his Impressionist contemporaries. He was a rebel in many ways, choosing the bohemian lifestyle of Belle Epoque Paris over a more acceptable career. He produced radical, dark, moody and intense works that leave you feeling vaguely uneasy as can be seen in his Self Portrait.

Odilon is an Artist's Artist, and for those who prefer the defiant attitude of modern art, he is a good one to study. You can read more about him here.

Died 6 July 1916 Paris, France