Head-tree

The Surrealist fusion of the human and the vegetable has noble art-historical predecessors. The 'Green Man' was amongst the most sophisticated semi-abstract decorations in medieval sculpted capitals and bible miniatures. Deeply attracted to the depiction of hybrids, Redon explored these themes since the early 1890s, reaching a remarkable synthesis of his multifarious sources in his Homme cactus, '... Cet tre mi-plante mi-humain, hriss de piquants et plant dans une jardinire cubique orne d'un motif mithologique, [qui] exprime un profond dspespoir' (A. Gurin, Odilon Redon, Boredeaux, 1985, p. 90). The Head-tree of the present drawing is a surreal fusion of thorns and luxurious leaves, paradoxically imposed on a severed human head. Differently from his contemporary charcoals, where the isolated human head flows in a empty, spectral atmosphere, conveying a feeling of profound anxiety, Redon's 'Green Man' expresses a sense of quieter alienation and languid melancholy.

The Wildenstein Institute has confirmed the authenticity of the present work.