Lot Essay
Redon returned late in his career to the subject of floral still-lives, which he had first explored in the 1860s. To these works he brought his fully mature skills as a colorist. He was influenced by the still-lives of his friend Henri Fantin-Latour, although the latter's approach was essentially naturalistic and seemed "dead" to Redon. While Redon refered to nature in his still-lives, he did so through the filter of memory and imagination:
I have often, as an exercise and as sustenance,
painted before an object down to the smallest accidents
of its... appearance; but [that] left me sad and
dissatisfied. The next day [when] I let the other
source, that of imagination, run through the recollection
of the forms, I was reassured and appeased.
(Redon quoted in G. Groom, "The Late Work," Odilon Redon:
Prince of Dreams, Chicago, The Art Institute, 1994,
exhibition catalogue, p. 320)
After 1900 Redon included floral still-lives in each of his exhibitions, and by 1904 it became his chief focus. His floral pastels and oil paintings were very popular (as the subject had been for Fantin-Latour) and for a time he became concerned that he would be known primarily as a painter of flowers. In his late portrait pastels and paintings he often incorporates flowers as important elements in the composition. They are more than purely decorative, however, and serve to induce a heady, fragant atmosphere which is inseparable from the qualities of reverie and fantasy that are the essence of Redon's art.
I have often, as an exercise and as sustenance,
painted before an object down to the smallest accidents
of its... appearance; but [that] left me sad and
dissatisfied. The next day [when] I let the other
source, that of imagination, run through the recollection
of the forms, I was reassured and appeased.
(Redon quoted in G. Groom, "The Late Work," Odilon Redon:
Prince of Dreams, Chicago, The Art Institute, 1994,
exhibition catalogue, p. 320)
After 1900 Redon included floral still-lives in each of his exhibitions, and by 1904 it became his chief focus. His floral pastels and oil paintings were very popular (as the subject had been for Fantin-Latour) and for a time he became concerned that he would be known primarily as a painter of flowers. In his late portrait pastels and paintings he often incorporates flowers as important elements in the composition. They are more than purely decorative, however, and serve to induce a heady, fragant atmosphere which is inseparable from the qualities of reverie and fantasy that are the essence of Redon's art.