by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Page Created on August 30, 2026 / Page Updated on November 6, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Closed Eyes: Introduction
Odilon Redon's Closed Eyes presents a human head and shoulders against a blue-grey field. Nothing happens in the narrative sense. The eyelids are lowered, the lips meet, and the body fades before it can become a complete portrait. Yet the painting is not empty or inert. Light seems to collect around the face and across a pale band near the bottom, while the visible weave beneath the paint keeps the apparition tethered to its material support.
Painted in 1890, the work stands at a crucial point in Redon's practice. He was renowned for the charcoal drawings and lithographs he called his noirs, but here diluted oil brings muted colour into a vision that retains their suspension and ambiguity. The Musée d'Orsay, which owns the painting, describes it as an icon of Symbolism and possibly a portrait of Redon's wife, Camille Falte.[1] Neither label explains it away. The power of Closed Eyes lies in how a particular face becomes an image of inward attention without losing its physical presence.
At a Glance
- ArtistOdilon Redon (1840–1916)
- Date1890
- Mediumoil on canvas mounted on cardboard
- Dimensions44 × 36 cm
- Subjecta bust-length figure with lowered eyelids, probably based on Camille Falte, although the identity should remain qualified
- CollectionMusée d'Orsay, Paris; accession RF 2791, bought from Redon by the French state in 1904[1]
Odilon Redon in context
Eye-Balloon
1878Closed Eyes
1890Ophelia among the Flowers
c. 1905–08The Chariot of Apollo
1905–16Pandora
1910/12The Cyclops
c. 1914Contents
- Introduction
- First Look: A Face Emerging from Blue
- The Meaning of the Closed Eyelids
- Camille Falte: Likely Sitter, Not Absolute Certainty
- Renaissance Busts and the Memory of Sculpture
- Diluted Oil and the Exposed Weave
- At the Threshold between the Noirs and Colour
- Related Versions Must Remain Separate
- Acquisition and Present Home
- Why Closed Eyes Matters
First Look: A Face Emerging from Blue
Begin at the top, where a dark mass of hair rounds the skull and separates it from the cool background. The contour is firmest along the left side. On the right it becomes less stable, merging with a brown vertical passage that may be read as hanging hair or shadow. The head leans slightly, but the face remains nearly frontal. That small imbalance prevents the pose from feeling rigid.
The eyelids provide the picture's quietest and strongest horizontal accents. They do not look squeezed shut; their arcs descend gently, with shallow shadow beneath. A narrow, angular nose draws the gaze down towards a compact mouth. Redon models one side of the face with pale light and lets the other sink into warmer brown. The result is not the rounded solidity of an academic portrait. Features appear through differences of tone, then soften again into the ground.
Follow the long neck downward. Its illuminated edge extends towards the pale lower zone, while the shoulders are only partly established. A faint curve at the left suggests clothing or the outline of a torso. Across the bottom, bluish and cream strokes form a broad horizontal band. It can evoke water, mist, a ledge or reflected light, but Redon gives it no definite function. The bust therefore seems at once to rise from this band and to dissolve into it. That unstable relation between figure and setting is central to the experience of the painting.
The Meaning of the Closed Eyelids
The Musée d'Orsay connects the closed eyes with sleep and death, as well as an inner world, dream, absence and apparition.[1] Those are possibilities, not items in a code. Nothing in the painting conclusively identifies the figure as asleep: there is no bed, room or resting body. Death is similarly suggested by stillness and pallor but not confirmed by narrative detail. Meditation may account for the composed expression, while apparition describes how the head occupies an undefined field. The image supports each reading without compelling a single one.
This openness is characteristic of Redon's Symbolist imagination. Symbolism here does not mean that every feature has a fixed hidden translation. Instead, the ordinary act of closing one's eyes becomes a threshold. The figure no longer exchanges a gaze with the viewer, and attention seems to turn away from the visible surroundings. Because Redon withholds those surroundings, viewers must decide whether they are looking at repose, withdrawal, memory, spiritual concentration or a presence appearing from elsewhere.
The effect depends on restraint. A dramatic grimace could specify suffering; a smile could imply contentment. Redon's nearly closed mouth and relaxed lids avoid both. Even the head's gendered identity is softened by the broad planes and idealised contour. The museum's association with Camille gives the face a biographical anchor, but the painting moves beyond ordinary likeness. It asks what a portrait can communicate when the sitter does not look back.
Camille Falte: Likely Sitter, Not Absolute Certainty
The Musée d'Orsay says that Closed Eyes is “no doubt” a portrait of Camille Falte, whom Redon married in 1880.[1] That institutional wording is strong but still stops short of documentary certainty. It is therefore more accurate to say that the painting probably draws on Camille's features than to present her identity as an uncontested fact.
An earlier work in the same museum, Madame Odilon Redon of 1882, securely identifies Camille in a three-quarter bust portrait.[4] Comparison offers context rather than proof. Both paintings give careful attention to the oval of the face, dark hair and the relation of head to shoulders, yet their purposes differ. The 1882 portrait establishes a person within conventional portrait space. In Closed Eyes, surrounding detail disappears, the pose becomes nearly frontal, and thin paint makes the face seem permeable to its atmosphere.
This distinction matters because biography can narrow a picture too quickly. If Camille supplied the features, Redon did not simply record how she looked at a particular moment. He transformed a familiar countenance into a form capable of carrying impersonal states: sleep, memory, inwardness and mortality. The probable sitter strengthens the work's intimacy, but it does not settle its meaning.
Renaissance Busts and the Memory of Sculpture
The compact format and isolated bust have a longer history. The Musée d'Orsay links the face to fifteenth-century Italian Renaissance busts, especially the marble portraits of Francesco Laurana. It also notes Redon's response to Michelangelo's Dying Slave in the Louvre and his interest in the strange appeal of its closed eyes.[1] These references help explain the painting's balance between bodily form and emotional distance.
Laurana's busts often give smooth, self-contained faces a reserved presence. Redon achieves a related calm without imitating marble. The rounded head, elongated neck and simplified shoulders make the figure feel sculpturally conceived, while the coloured haze denies it the clear volume and architectural setting of an actual statue. Michelangelo's figure offers another kind of suspension: a body caught between resistance and release. Redon reduces that drama to the smallest signs, locating it in the tilt of the head and the refusal of the eyes to open.
These precedents do not turn Closed Eyes into an exercise in revival. Redon takes the authority of the traditional bust and makes it unstable. A commemorative portrait normally asserts the sitter's continuing presence. Here the person seems to arrive and recede at the same moment. The past supplies a credible human shape; the modern handling of surface places that shape in doubt.
Diluted Oil and the Exposed Weave
The official record identifies the work precisely as oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, not pastel and not oil painted directly onto cardboard.[1] That construction deserves attention. Canvas gives the image its regular woven texture; the cardboard backing supplies a firm secondary support. The painting is small enough for close viewing, and its thin layers allow the texture to participate in nearly every area.
The Musée d'Orsay describes the oil as highly diluted and almost immaterial because the grain remains visible.[1] Across the blue ground, fine vertical and horizontal threads interrupt the colour. They also run through the forehead, cheeks and neck. Instead of concealing the support beneath an opaque skin of paint, Redon allows it to show through the figure. The face is consequently both an illusion and an exposed arrangement of stain, stroke and fabric.
Look at the brighter half of the face. Light does not form a continuous polished surface. It catches in small touches around the forehead, nose, cheek and upper lip, while warmer undertones remain perceptible. Darker marks define the hair and eye sockets, but their edges are rubbed or feathered. At the base, pale strokes skim across the weave more assertively. This variation in density makes the head appear to materialise where paint gathers and evaporate where it thins.
The restrained palette is often described as blue, but it contains more than one temperature. Cool violet-blue surrounds the head; muted brown warms the hair and shaded cheek; cream and grey gather below. Redon avoids high saturation, so colour operates as atmosphere rather than ornament. A digital reproduction can make these relations accessible, although screen brightness and calibration alter subtle values. The open high-resolution file recorded by Wikimedia Commons corresponds to the Orsay painting and preserves enough surface detail to reveal the weave clearly.[5]
At the Threshold between the Noirs and Colour
The date 1890 makes Closed Eyes a useful marker in Redon's career, but it should not be treated as the instant when black ended and colour began. The Musée d'Orsay explains that his transition was gradual: charcoal remained present in pastels, while pastel could be added to paintings, and the matte, powdery qualities of different media remained important.[2] Getty likewise presents continuity between the shadowy creatures of the earlier work and the coloured forms that later emerge from uncertain space.[3]
Closed Eyes embodies that continuity. Its blue-grey tonality is unmistakably coloured, yet its narrow range retains the hush of charcoal. The head floats without an ordinary setting, just as heads, eyes and organisms hover in Redon's noirs and prints. Tonal emergence still matters more than descriptive completeness. What changes is the kind of light available: oil permits a cool luminous field and a warmer, flesh-like glow while preserving soft boundaries.
The Orsay record says the painting reworks the composition of an earlier drawing.[1] That fact does not make the oil a simple coloured copy. Translating a motif into another medium changes its behaviour. Charcoal can make darkness seem like the substance from which an image is born. In this painting, the visible canvas and washed colour create a paler uncertainty, closer to mist, breath or reflected light. For a broader comparison, Redon's paintings and pastels show how colour enlarged his vocabulary without eliminating the imaginative habits formed in black.
Related Versions Must Remain Separate
Redon returned to closed eyes in drawings, lithographs and other paintings. Similar titles and shared features can make catalogue records look interchangeable, but they are distinct objects. The work discussed here is the 1890 oil measuring 44 by 36 centimetres, mounted on cardboard and held by the Musée d'Orsay under accession RF 2791.[1]
The museum's statement that it reprises an earlier drawing establishes a relationship, not identity. A work on paper has its own dimensions, technique, history and location. The same caution applies to lithographic treatments of the motif and to another oil sometimes called Closed Eyes or In Heaven. Their dates, contours and supports differ. Details belonging to one version should never be transferred to another merely because an English title matches.
Comparison can still be illuminating. Repetition shows that Redon treated a motif as something to vary rather than finish once. A closed face could become darker or lighter, more frontal or more turned, more bodily or more visionary. What distinguishes the Orsay painting is its precise conjunction of exposed canvas, muted blue, 1890 date and early national acquisition.
Acquisition and Present Home
In 1904 Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg, selected Closed Eyes in Redon's studio. The French state bought it directly from the artist, making it the first work by Redon to enter the national collections.[1] Its institutional route then followed the reorganisation of those collections: from the Luxembourg it passed to the Louvre, was shown in the Jeu de Paume, and was assigned to the Musée d'Orsay in 1977.[1]
This history adds a public dimension to an image built around privacy and inwardness. Fourteen years after it was painted, an official acquisition placed Redon's elusive art within the national story of modern painting. The selection also ensured that a work poised between portrait, memory and apparition would become one of the principal objects through which later viewers encountered him.
The museum's current record lists Closed Eyes at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[1] Gallery display can change, so anyone planning a visit should consult that record close to the date of travel. Whether seen in person or on screen, the most rewarding approach is slow: follow the fabric's weave, notice where contours strengthen and vanish, and let the lowered lids remain unresolved.
Why Closed Eyes Matters
Closed Eyes matters because it converts a minimal event into a sustained act of looking. The face is sufficiently particular to suggest portraiture and sufficiently simplified to exceed it. Renaissance sculpture supplies a remembered structure; diluted oil makes that structure nearly weightless. Muted colour enters Redon's art without banishing the spatial uncertainty developed in his black works.
Most importantly, the painting refuses to choose between material and spiritual experience. Its canvas is insistently visible, yet the figure appears immaterial. The sitter may be Camille, but she is also an image of consciousness turned inward. Sleep and death remain near one another without becoming equivalent. Redon's achievement is not to solve these contradictions, but to make them coexist in one quiet, unforgettable presence.
Researched works directory
This searchable evidence census was assembled from public museum records and a reproducible Wikidata snapshot. It is not a catalogue raisonné, a claim to complete oeuvre coverage, or a substitute for Alec Wildenstein's printed catalogue, which was not consulted for this directory.
| Name | Date | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| A La Vieillesse (To Old Age) | 1886 | |
| A Madman in a Dismal Landscape | 1885 | |
| A Woman Reading a Book or Reading | 1914 | Painting |
| Allégorie : un arbre rouge non rougi par le soleil | 1905 | Painting |
| Alsace | 1914 | Painting |
| Andromeda | 1907 | Painting |
| Andromeda | 1912 | Painting |
| Andromeda enchained | 1905 | Painting |
| Anémones | Date unknown | Painting |
| Anemones and Tulips | 1902 | Painting |
| Animals at the Bottom of the Sea | Date unknown | Painting |
| Antoine: Quel Est Le But de Tout Cela? ... | Date unknown | |
| Apache (Man on Horseback) | Date unknown | Painting |
| Apache (Man on Horseback II) | Date unknown | Painting |
| Apollo | 1905 | Painting |
| Apollo's chariot | 1910 | Painting |
| Apollon vainqueur du serpent Python | 1872 | Painting |
| Apollonius | 1896 | Drawing |
| Apparition | 1905 | Painting |
| Apparition | 1907 | Painting |
| Apres cela je vis descendre du ciel un ange qui avait la clef de l'abime, et une grande chaine en sa main (And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand) | 1899 | |
| Arabe musicien | 1893 | Painting |
| Arbre dans la lande | Date unknown | Painting |
| Arbre (Tree) | 1892 | |
| Arbres sur un fond jaune | 1901 | Painting |
| Ari | 1898 | |
| Armor | 1891 | Drawing |
| At the Bottom of the Sea | 1905 | Painting |
| Au réveil j’aperçus la Déesse de l’Intelligible au profil sévère et dur [Bij het ontwaken zag ik de godin van het begrijpelijke in een streng en hard profiel], uit de reeks Hommage à Goya. 6 lithographies par Odilon Redon | 1885 | |
| Autoportrait en buste | 1876 | Painting |
| Bain de Venus | 1900 | Painting |
| Barbizon en automne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Baronne de Domecy | 1900 | Painting |
| Baronne Robert de Domecy | 1900 | Painting |
| Barques | 1885 | Painting |
| Barques dans le port | 1880 | Painting |
| Battle with the dragon | 1907 | Painting |
| Beatrice | 1885 | Painting |
| Béatrice | 1897 | |
| Bell-Tower Keeper | Date unknown | Painting |
| Black Sun | 1900 | Painting |
| Bloemstilleven | 1901 | Painting |
| Boqueteau | Date unknown | Painting |
| Bouddha dans sa jeunesse | Date unknown | Painting |
| Bouleaux à Bièvres | Date unknown | Painting |
| Bouquet au vase noir | Date unknown | Painting |
| Bouquet de fleurs | 1900 | Painting |
| Bouquet de fleurs | 1908 | Painting |
| Bouquet de fleurs au mimosa | Date unknown | Painting |
| Bouquet in a Chinese Vase | 1912 | Painting |
| Bouquet of Flowers | 1902 | Painting |
| Bouquet of flowers | 1904 | Painting |
| Bouquet of Flowers in a Green Vase | 1915 | Painting |
| Breton Village | 1890 | Painting |
| Brunnhilde | 1894 | |
| Butterflies | 1910 | Painting |
| C'est le Diable | 1888 | |
| C'est moi, Jean, qui ai vu et qui ai oie ces choses (And I John saw these things and heard them | 1899 | |
| C'etait un voile, un empriente (It was a veil, an imprint) | 1891 | |
| Cain and Abel | 1886 | |
| Caïn et Abel | Date unknown | Painting |
| Caliban, petit monstre ou gnome | 1881 | Drawing |
| Calvary | 1895 | Painting |
| Carnations | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Carton de vitrail | 1911 | Painting |
| Cavalier Galopant (Galloping Horseman) | 1866 | |
| Cellule Auriculaire | 1894 | |
| Cellule Auriculaire (Auricular Cell) | 1894 | |
| Centaur visant les Nues (Centaur aiming at the Clouds) | 1895 | |
| Chaumière bretonne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Chemin près de la mer | Date unknown | Painting |
| Cheval aile (Winged Horse) | 1894 | |
| Cheval cabré sur une cime | Date unknown | Painting |
| Christ | 1887 | |
| Christ and the Samaritan Woman (The White Flower Bouquet) | 1895 | Painting |
| Christ on the cross | 1910 | Painting |
| Ciel couvert sur une lande | Date unknown | Painting |
| Citroen en paprika | 1901 | Painting |
| Cliff Scene | 1895 | Painting |
| Closed Eyes | 1890 | Painting |
| Closed Eyes (Yeux Clos) | 1890 | |
| Colline, près de Royan | Date unknown | Painting |
| Combat équestre | 1910 | Painting |
| Composition à trois personnages (Flagellation ?) | Date unknown | Painting |
| Composition: Flowers | Date unknown | Painting |
| Composition: Flowers without a Vase | Date unknown | Painting |
| Conque marine | Date unknown | Painting |
| Conversation mystique | Date unknown | Painting |
| copie d'après 'La chasse aux lions' de Delacroix | 1865 | Painting |
| Copie d'après 'La Grèce sur les ruines de Missolonghi' de Delacroix | Date unknown | Painting |
| Coquelicots | 1885 | Painting |
| Couverture - Frontispice | 1890 | |
| Crucifixion | Date unknown | Painting |
| Cul-de-Lampe | 1890 | |
| Dans l'Ombre des Gens Pleurent et Prient Entourés d'Autres Qui Les Exhortent | Date unknown | |
| Dans mon rêve, je vis au ciel un visage de mystère | 1885 | |
| Dante and Beatrice | 1914 | Painting |
| De oude Ridder | 1896 | |
| De Strijdwagen van Apollo | Date unknown | Painting |
| Den helige Antonius, bröstbild | 1906 | Drawing |
| Des Fleurs Tombent, et la Tête d'un Python Parait | Date unknown | |
| Des Peuples Divers Habitent Les Pays De L'Océan | Date unknown | |
| Die Kathedrale - 13080 - Bavarian State Painting Collections | 1914 | Painting |
| Druidesse | 1891 | |
| Druidesse | 1892 | |
| Dunes | Date unknown | Painting |
| Edouard Vuillard | 1900 | |
| Een man van het volk. Tekening voor een illustratie in Le Juré van Edmond Picard | 1887 | Drawing |
| Eerbetoon aan Goya | 1895 | Painting |
| Elle Tire de Sa Poitrine une Éponge Toute Noire, La Couvre de Baisers | Date unknown | |
| Elle tire de sa poitrine une eponge toute noire, la couvre de baisers (She draws from her bosom a sponge, perfectly black, and covers it with kisses) | 1896 | |
| Escape to Egypt | Date unknown | Painting |
| Esquisse de vitrail | 1905 | Drawing |
| Et celui qui était monté dessus se nommait la Mort (And his name that sat on him was Death) | 1899 | |
| Et il avait dans sa main droit sept etoiles, et de sa bouch sortait une epee aigue a deux tranchants (And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword) | 1899 | |
| Et Il Distingue Une Plaine Aride et Mamelonneuse | Date unknown | |
| Et il tombe du ciel une grande etoile ardente (And there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp) | 1899 | |
| Et l'homme parut, interrogeant le sol d'ou il sort et qui l'attire, il se fraya la voie vers (And Man appeared; questioning theearth from which he emerged and which attracts hi m, he made his way toward somber brightness) | 1883 | |
| Et la-bas l'idole astrale, l'Apotheose (And beyond, the star idol, the apotheosis) | 1891 | |
| Et le diable qui les seduisait, fut jete dans l'etang de feu et de soufre, ou es la b ete et le faux prophete (And the devil thatdeceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are) | 1899 | |
| Et le lia pour mille ans (And bound him a thousand years) | 1899 | |
| Et moi, Jean, Je vis la sainte cite, la nouvelle Jerusalem, qui descendait du ciel, d'aupres de dieu (And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven) | 1899 | |
| Et Partout ce Sont des Colonnes de Basalte,... La Lumière Tombe des Voutes | Date unknown | |
| ...Et Que Des Vuex Sans Tête Flottaient Comme Des Mollusques | Date unknown | |
| Et un autre ange sortit du temple qui est au ciel, ayant lui aussi une faucille tranchante (And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also having a sharp sickle) | 1899 | |
| Etruscan Vase with Flowers | 1905 | Painting |
| étude pour 'La chasse aux lions' d’après Delacroix | 1867 | Painting |
| Eve | 1904 | Painting |
| Evocation of Butterflies | 1910 | Painting |
| Evocation of Roussel | 1912 | Painting |
| Eye-Balloon | 1878 | Drawing |
| Falaise dominant la mer | Date unknown | Painting |
| Fantasia | 1910 | Painting |
| Fantasmagorie | Date unknown | Painting |
| Femme a la torque ornee (Woman with a plumed hat) | 1900 | |
| Femme de Profil (Profile of a Woman) | 1900 | |
| Femme en rouge | 1898 | Drawing |
| Ferme et rochers | Date unknown | Painting |
| Figure | 1901 | Painting |
| Figure cornue | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figure devant un arbre | 1894 | Drawing |
| Figure portant une tête ailée | 1876 | Drawing |
| Figure, yellow flower | 1901 | Painting |
| Fireplace screen | 1908 | Painting |
| Fishing Boat | Date unknown | Painting |
| Fishing Boats: Memory of Venice | 1908 | Painting |
| Fishing Village, Brittany | 1883 | Painting |
| Five Butterflies | 1912 | Drawing |
| Fleurs | Date unknown | Painting |
| Fleurs dans un paysage de montagne avec visage | Date unknown | Painting |
| Fleurs dans un vase | 1907 | Painting |
| Fleurs dans un Vase bleu | 1903 | Painting |
| Fleurs dans un vase : pivoines | Date unknown | Painting |
| Fleurs des champs | 1906 | Painting |
| Fleurs étranges | 1910 | Painting |
| Flower Clouds | 1903 | Drawing |
| Flowers in a Japanese Vase | 1908 | Painting |
| Flowers in a Vase | 1910 | Painting |
| Flowers in Green Vase | Date unknown | Painting |
| Flowers: Poppies and Daisies | 1867 | Painting |
| Frieze of flowers and berries | 1901 | Painting |
| Frise de fleurs, marguerite rose | 1901 | Painting |
| Frontispiece | 1889 | |
| Gekruisigde Christus | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Geraniums and other Flowers in a Stoneware Jug | 1910 | Painting |
| Grand Bouquet | 1901 | Painting |
| Grand bouquet de fleurs des champs | 1903 | Painting |
| Grand panneau à décor végétal, fond clair | 1901 | Painting |
| Grand tapis de prière | 1908 | Painting |
| Green Death | Date unknown | Painting |
| Grey frieze | 1901 | Painting |
| Groupe de maisons blanches aux toits rouges | Date unknown | Painting |
| Guardian Spirit of the Waters | 1878 | Drawing |
| Hantise (Obsession) | 1894 | |
| Hélène (Ennoia) | Date unknown | |
| Hommage à Goya. 6 lithographies par Odilon Redon | 1885 | |
| Icarus | 1890 | Painting |
| Il Tombe Dans L'Abime, La Tête En Bas | Date unknown | |
| Il y eut aussi des êtres embryonnaires [Er waren ook embryonale wezens], uit de reeks Hommage à Goya. 6 lithographies par Odilon Redon | 1885 | |
| Il y eut des luttes et des vaines victoires (There were struggles and vain victories) | 1883 | |
| Il y eut peut-etre une vision premiere essayee dans la fleur (There was perhaps a first vision attempted in the flower | 1883 | |
| Immédiatement Surgissent Trois Déesses | Date unknown | |
| Initiation to Study—Two Young Ladies | 1905 | Painting |
| J'ai Quelquefois Aperçu Dans Le Ciel Comme Des Formes D'Esprits | Date unknown | |
| Jacob and the Angel | 1907 | Painting |
| Jacob's Struggle with the Angel | 1910 | Painting |
| Jacob Wrestling with the Angel | 1907 | Painting |
| Je Me Suis Enfoncé dans la Solitude. J'habitais L'Arbre Derrière Moi | Date unknown | |
| Je Suis Toujours la Grande Isis! Nul N'A Encore Soulevé Mon Fruit Est Le Soleil | Date unknown | |
| Je t'adore a l'egal de la voute nocturne. O vase de tristesse, o grande taciturne (I adore you as I adore the vault of the night sky, O vessel of sadness, O tall silent woman) | 1890 | |
| Jésus et la Samaritaine | Date unknown | Painting |
| L'Aile impuissante n'eleva point la bete en ces noirs espaces (The impotent wing did not lift the animal into that black space | 1883 | |
| L'Aile (The Wing) | 1893 | |
| L'ange déchu | 1875 | Painting |
| L'ange guerrier | 1900 | Painting |
| L'apparition | Date unknown | Painting |
| L'Araignée souriante | 1881 | Drawing |
| L'Arbre | Date unknown | Painting |
| L'Art Celeste (The Celestial Art) | 1894 | |
| L'Automne en Médoc | 1897 | Painting |
| L'Enlèvement de Ganymède | Date unknown | Painting |
| L'Intelligence Fut A Moi! Je Devins Le Buddha | Date unknown | |
| La Baie des Trépassés | Date unknown | Painting |
| La Barque | 1900 | Painting |
| La Barque rouge | 1900 | Painting |
| La Branche fleurie jaune | 1901 | Painting |
| La captive | 1914 | Painting |
| La Chute de Phaéton | 1906 | Painting |
| La Chute de Phaëton | 1910 | Painting |
| La fleur du marécage, une tête humaine et triste [De moerasbloem, een triest menselijk hoofd], uit de reeks Hommage à Goya. 6 lithographies par Odilon Redon | 1885 | |
| La Mare à Peyrelebade | 1897 | Painting |
| La Mer à Morgat | 1883 | Painting |
| La Mort: C'est Moi Te Rendes Sérieuse; Enlaçons-Nous | Date unknown | |
| La Mort d'Orphée | 1908 | Painting |
| La mort. Mon ironie dépasse toutes les autres! | 1890 | Painting |
| La Mort: Mon ironie depasse toutes les autres! (Death: My iron surpasses all others!) | 1889 | |
| La palme | Date unknown | Painting |
| La Peur (Fear) | 1865 | |
| La route de Bièvres | 1890 | Painting |
| La sirene sortit des flots vetue de dards (The Siren clothed in barbs, emerged from the waves | 1883 | |
| La Sulamite (The Shulamite) | 1897 | |
| La Vieille: Que Crains-tu? Un Large Trou Noir! Il Est Vide Peut-être? | Date unknown | |
| La Vieille: Que Crains-tu? Un large trou Noir! Il est vide peut-etre? (What are you afraid of? A wide black hole! It is empty, perhaps!) | 1896 | |
| Lady of the Flowers | 1892 | Painting |
| Lande avec une mare | Date unknown | Painting |
| Lande nue | Date unknown | Painting |
| Landscape | 1872 | Painting |
| Landscape | Date unknown | Painting |
| Landscape at Daybreak | 1872 | Painting |
| Landscape with Rocks near Royan | Date unknown | Painting |
| Large Vase with Flowers | 1912 | Painting |
| Le Bouddha | 1895 | |
| Le Bouddha | 1906 | Drawing |
| Le Buddha | 1895 | |
| Le Centaure à l'arc | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le Centaure aux coquelicots | 1910 | Painting |
| Le centaure et le dragon | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le char d'Apollon | 1905 | Painting |
| Le Chemin à Peyrelebade | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le Chêne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le Coursier (The Race Horse) | 1894 | |
| Le Gue (The Ford) | 1865 | |
| Le Jour (Day) | 1891 | |
| Le Jour Enfin Parait,... Et Dans Le Disque Même Du Soleil, Rayonne La Face de Jésus-Christ | Date unknown | |
| Le Liseur (The reader) | 1892 | |
| Le paravent rouge (avec Pégase) | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le pavot noir | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le Petit Vase vert | Date unknown | Painting |
| Le Polype difforme flottait sur les rivages, sorte de cyclope souriant et hideux (Thedeformed polyp floated on the shores, a sort of smiling and hideous Cyclops | 1883 | |
| Le Regard | 1901 | Painting |
| Le Regard | 1910 | Painting |
| Le Rêve – Fleurs et Visage | 1890 | Drawing |
| Le Rocher rose | 1880 | Painting |
| Le Satyre au cynique sourire (The Satyr with the cynical smile) | 1883 | |
| Le Silence | 1895 | Painting |
| Le Vitrail | 1906 | Painting |
| Les Anemones (Still Life with Anemones) | 1905 | Painting |
| Les Bêtes De La Mer Rondes Comme Des Outres | Date unknown | |
| Les Croisés | Date unknown | Painting |
| Les Landes à Peyrelebade | 1885 | Painting |
| Les Parques | Date unknown | Painting |
| Les Quais à Bordeaux | 1900 | Painting |
| Les rochers (Rochers en Bretagne) | 1875 | Painting |
| Les Sciapodes: La tete le plus bas possible, c'est le secret du bonheur! (The Skiapods: "The head as low as possible, that is the secret of happiness!") | 1889 | |
| Les trois vases bleus | 1910 | Painting |
| Liserons et coquelicots dans un petit pichet vert | 1866 | Painting |
| Lueur precaire, une tete a l'infini suspendue(Precarious glimmering, a head suspended | 1891 | |
| Lumière | Date unknown | |
| Lumiere (Light) | 1893 | |
| Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier, born 1865) | 1901 | Painting |
| Madame Odilon Redon | 1882 | Painting |
| maison avec deux arbres | Date unknown | Painting |
| Marguerites | 1901 | Painting |
| Marguerites et baies de Sorbier | 1901 | Painting |
| Maurice Denis | 1903 | |
| Médoc, arbres dans la prairie | Date unknown | Painting |
| Médoc, l'arbre | Date unknown | Painting |
| Médoc, la lande | Date unknown | Painting |
| Médoc, le bouquet d'arbres | Date unknown | Painting |
| Melancholy | 1868 | Drawing |
| Mes Baisers ont le Gout d'un Fruit Qui Se Fondrait Dans Ton Coeur!... | Date unknown | |
| Meules couvertes de bâches près d'un arbre | Date unknown | Painting |
| Mme Sabouraud (Thérèse Balandier) | 1907 | Drawing |
| Mon Enfant (My Child) | 1892 | |
| Montagnes des Pyrénées | Date unknown | Painting |
| Morgat vue des dunes de la Palue | Date unknown | Painting |
| moulin en Bretagne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Mystery | 1910 | Painting |
| Mystical Conversation | 1896 | Painting |
| Nasturtium | 1905 | Painting |
| Nature morte | 1901 | Painting |
| Navet | 1875 | Painting |
| Noce juive au Maroc | Date unknown | Painting |
| Nocturne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Nuages clairs sur une lande | Date unknown | Painting |
| Oannès | 1905 | Painting |
| Oannès | 1908 | Painting |
| Oannes and the Sphinx | 1910 | Painting |
| Oannès: Moi, La Première Conscience Du Chaos, J'ai Surgi de L'Abime Pour Durcir la Matière, Pour Régler les Formes | Date unknown | |
| Offrande | Date unknown | Painting |
| Old Man With Wings and Beard or Winged Old Man with a Long White Beard | 1870 | Drawing |
| Ophelia | 1901 | Painting |
| Ophelia | 1905 | Painting |
| Ophelia | Date unknown | Painting |
| Ophelia among the Flowers | c. 1905–1908 | Drawing |
| Ophelia with a Blue Wimple in the Water | 1900 | Painting |
| Orphée | 1910 | Painting |
| Orphée | Date unknown | Painting |
| Orpheus | 1903 | Drawing |
| Pandora | 1910/1912 | Painting |
| Panneau décoratif | 1902 | Painting |
| Pansies | 1905 | Drawing |
| Papillons | 1910 | Painting |
| Paravent d'Olivier Sainsère | 1903 | Painting |
| Parfois on trouve un vieux flacon qui se souvient, d'ou jaillit toute vive une ame qui revient (Sometimes one finds an old reminiscing flask, whence issues in full life a returning soul) | 1890 | |
| Parsifal | 1892 | |
| Passage d'une Ame (Passage of a Spirit) | 1891 | |
| Paul Gauguin | 1904 | Painting |
| Paul Serusier | 1903 | |
| Paysage de Venise | 1908 | Painting |
| Pégase et l'Hydre | 1900 | Painting |
| Pegasus | 1914 | Painting |
| Pegasus and the Hydra | 1907 | Painting |
| Pegasus, the Horse on the Rock | 1908 | Drawing |
| Pélerin du monde sublunaire (Pilgrim of the sublunary world) | 1891 | |
| Perversité | 1891 | |
| Perversite (Perversity) | 1891 | |
| Petite fille tricotant | Date unknown | Painting |
| Peupliers à Peyrelebade | Date unknown | Painting |
| Peyrelebade | 1888 | Painting |
| Pierre Bonnard | 1900 | |
| Piety Beside a Red Tree | 1905 | Painting |
| Pivoine, géranium et lilas | Date unknown | Painting |
| Plante verte dans une urne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Pond in les Landes | 1880 | Painting |
| Port breton | Date unknown | Painting |
| Portrait d'Arï Redon au col marin | 1897 | Painting |
| Portrait d'Arï Redon en profil | 1892 | |
| Portrait de Jeanne Chaine | 1903 | Drawing |
| Portrait de jeune fille sur fond d'arcatures | 1911 | Painting |
| Portrait de Madame Redon | 1911 | Painting |
| Portrait de Paule Gobillard | 1908 | Drawing |
| Portrait of A.M.L. Bonger-van der Linden | 1905 | Painting |
| Portrait of Emile Bernard | 1901 | Drawing |
| Profil de jeune fille parmi les fleurs | 1905 | Painting |
| Profil de lumiere (Profile of light) | 1886 | |
| Profile | Date unknown | Painting |
| Profile and Flowers | 1912 | Drawing |
| Profile of a Woman with a Vase of Flowers | 1900 | Painting |
| Profile on Red Meanders (formery known as Jeanne d'Arc) (see Google Books) | 1900 | Drawing |
| Prophète | Date unknown | Painting |
| Puis l'ange prit l'encensoir (And the angel took the censer) | 1899 | |
| Quadrige, le char d’Apollon | 1909 | Painting |
| Quand s'eveillait la Vie au Fon de la matiere obscure (When life was awakening in the depths of obscure matter | 1883 | |
| Reflections | 1903 | Drawing |
| rocher en Bretagne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rocher sur la grève | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rochers de Vallières, près de Royan | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rochers en Bretagne | 1884 | Painting |
| Rochers près de Royan | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rochers sur la plage | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rocks on the Beach | 1883 | Painting |
| Rocky Peak | 1875 | Painting |
| Rocky Slope | Date unknown | Painting |
| Roger and Angelica | 1910 | Drawing |
| Roger et Angélique | Date unknown | Painting |
| Roger Marx | 1904 | |
| Roland à Ronceveaux | 1862 | Painting |
| Rose, iris et marguerites dans un vase vert | Date unknown | Painting |
| rue à Saint-Georges-de-Didonne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Rue de village | 1875 | Painting |
| Rue Douarnenez | 1880 | Painting |
| Sailboats (Allegorical Landscape) | 1907 | Painting |
| Saint Anthony and the Two Temptresses (Saint Antoine et deux Tentatrices) | 1896 | Drawing |
| Saint-Antoine...A travers ses longs cheveux qui lui couvraient la figure, j'ai cru reconnaitre Ammonaria (Saint Anthony: "Beneathe her long hair , which covered her face, I thought I recognized Ammonaria) | 1889 | |
| Saint-Antoine: Au Secours Mon Dieu! | Date unknown | |
| Saint George and the Dragon | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Saint George and the Dragon (Saint Georges et le dragon) | 1909 | Painting |
| Saint Jean | 1910 | Drawing |
| Saint John | 1900 | Painting |
| Saint Sebastian | 1900 | Painting |
| Saint Sebastian | 1910 | Painting |
| Saint Sebastian (Basel) | 1910 | Painting |
| Saint Sébastien | 1910 | Painting |
| Salomé | 1910 | Painting |
| Sans cesse a mes cotes s'agite le demon (Ceaselessly by my side the demon stirs) | 1890 | |
| Seated Man | Date unknown | Painting |
| Self-portrait | 1867 | Painting |
| Self-portrait | 1880 | Painting |
| Self-portrait | 1885 | Painting |
| Si par une nuit lourde et sombre, un bon chretien, par charite, derriere quelque vieux decombre, enterre votre corps voute (If on a close dark night a good Christian, out of charity, behind some old ruin, buries your arched body) | 1890 | |
| Silence | 1911 | Painting |
| Siren | 1900 | Painting |
| Small Grey Panel I | 1901 | Painting |
| Small Grey Panel II | 1901 | Painting |
| Sommeil de Caliban | 1895 | Painting |
| Sous-bois au printemps | Date unknown | Painting |
| Sous l'aile d'ombre | Date unknown | |
| Sous l'aile d'ombre, l'etre noir appliquait une active morsure (Beneath the wing of shadow the black creature was biting energetically) | 1891 | |
| Spring | 1907 | Painting |
| Still Life with Flowers | 1905 | Painting |
| Still Life with Fruit | 1905 | Painting |
| stillife | Date unknown | Painting |
| Sur le fond de nos nuits dieu de son doigt savant dessine un cauchemar multiforme et sans treve (On backdrop of our nights God with His knowing finger traces a multiform implacable nightmare) | 1890 | |
| Symbolic Head | 1890 | Painting |
| Tete d'Enfant avec Fleurs (Head of a Child with Flowers) | 1897 | |
| Tete d'Enfant (Head of a Child) | 1899 | |
| Tête d'Orphée | Date unknown | Painting |
| The Angel Raphael Leaving Tobit and His Family | 1862 | Painting |
| The Birth of Venus | 1906 | Painting |
| The Birth of Venus | 1912 | Painting |
| The Book of Light | 1893 | Drawing |
| The Buddha | 1904 | Painting |
| The Chariot of Apollo | 1905–1916 | Painting |
| The Chariot of Apollo series | Date unknown | Painting |
| The chariot of the Sun | 1910 | Painting |
| The Crucifixion | 1904 | Painting |
| The Cyclops | c. 1914 | Painting |
| The Death of Orpheus | 1904 | Painting |
| The Devil (Le Diable) | 1896 | Drawing |
| The Dog | 1896 | |
| The Fisherwoman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Flowers in a Blue Vase | 1913 | Drawing |
| The Golden Cell | 1892 | Painting |
| The Gothic Window | 1900 | Painting |
| The Green Vase | Date unknown | Painting |
| The Grey Sail | Date unknown | Painting |
| The Haunting (Hantise) | 1893 | Artwork |
| The Headhunter and His Family | 1870 | Drawing |
| The Mount of Calvary | 1895 | Drawing |
| The Muse on Pegasus | 1908 | Painting |
| The Port of Morgat | 1882 | Painting |
| The Potted Geranium | 1865 | Painting |
| The Prayer | 1893 | Painting |
| The Queen of Sheba (La Reine de Saba) | 1896 | Drawing |
| The Red Boat | 1910 | Painting |
| The Red Man | 1905 | Painting |
| The red poppy | 1895 | Painting |
| The Red Tree | 1905 | Painting |
| The Sea in Brittany | Date unknown | Painting |
| The Shadow (L'Ombre) | 1896 | Drawing |
| The Tree | 1875 | Painting |
| The Two Graces | 1900 | Painting |
| The Winged Man | 1890 | Painting |
| The Yellow Sail | 1905 | Painting |
| Three Fates | 1900 | Painting |
| Trees in Bièvres | Date unknown | Painting |
| Trees in the Blue Sky | 1883 | Painting |
| Triumph of Truth | 1870 | Painting |
| Tronc d'arbre dans la plaine | Date unknown | Painting |
| Two Dancers | Date unknown | Painting |
| Two Young Girls among Flowers | 1912 | Painting |
| Un étrange jongleur [Een vreemde evenwichtskunstenaar], uit de reeks Hommage à Goya. 6 lithographies par Odilon Redon | 1885 | |
| Underwater Vision | 1910 | Painting |
| Une femme revêtue du Soleil (A woman clothed with the sun) | 1899 | |
| Une longue chrysalide couleur de sang (A longchrysalis, the color of blood) | 1889 | |
| Vase de fleurs | 1915 | Painting |
| Vase de fleurs | Date unknown | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers | 1867 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers | 1890 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers | 1901 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers | 1904 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers | 1905 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers, after Cézanne | 1896 | Painting |
| Vase of Flowers (Pink Background) | c. 1906 | Painting |
| Vase with Bindweed and Camomile | 1867 | Painting |
| Vase with Wild Flowers | 1900 | Drawing |
| Vieil arbre dans une prairie | Date unknown | Painting |
| Vierge | 1916 | Painting |
| Vieux Chevalier (Old Knight) | 1896 | |
| Village by the Sea in Brittany | 1880 | Painting |
| Village dans les Basses-Pyrénées | Date unknown | Painting |
| Village Square, Brittany | 1883 | Painting |
| Village sur la côte de Bretagne | Date unknown | Painting |
| Vision | 1890 | Painting |
| Vision dans les nuages | 1900 | Painting |
| Vision- vase of flowers | 1900 | Painting |
| Voici La Bonne-Déesse, L'Idéenne des Montagnes | Date unknown | |
| Volupte, Fantome Elastique! (Pleasure, elastic phantom!) | 1890 | |
| Wildflowers | 1905 | Drawing |
| Wildflowers in a Long Neck Vase | Date unknown | Painting |
| Window | 1907 | Painting |
| Winged Horse | 1895 | |
| With Closed Eyes | Date unknown | Painting |
| Woman in a gothic arcade- woman with flowers | 1905 | Painting |
| Yellow frieze | 1901 | Painting |
| Yeux Clos (Closed Eyes) | 1890 | |
| Young Man (Jeune Homme) | 1896 | Drawing |
| Young Woman in Profile | 1910 | Drawing |
| Young woman standing | Date unknown | Painting |
Frequently Asked Questions
It shows a nearly frontal, bust-length figure with dark hair, a tilted head and lowered eyelids against an undefined blue-grey field. The Musée d'Orsay considers the face probably based on Redon's wife, Camille Falte, but the painting transforms possible portrait likeness into a broader image of inwardness.[1][4]
Redon painted it in 1890 and signed and dated it at the lower left. The year places the work near his gradual expansion from the charcoal noirs into sustained work with colour; it is a useful landmark, not an absolute dividing line.[1][2]
The painting is oil on canvas mounted on cardboard and measures 44 × 36 centimetres.[1] Redon applied the oil very thinly, allowing the woven grain to remain visible. It is therefore incorrect to describe this particular object as a pastel or as an oil painted directly on cardboard.
They can suggest sleep, death, dream, absence, meditation or apparition, but the painting does not confirm one exclusive meaning.[1] The lack of setting and the sitter's withdrawn gaze encourage inward interpretation. Its Symbolist force comes from keeping related possibilities active rather than assigning the eyelids a single code.
It belongs to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where its accession number is RF 2791.[1] The French state purchased it from Redon in 1904 after Léonce Bénédite selected it in the artist's studio. Visitors should check the museum's current object record because room assignments and display status can change.
Discussion
Use this evidence-led guide as a starting point for close looking rather than a final verdict.
Share an observation about Closed Eyes or a source that adds useful context.
Reader Insights
Which detail most changes your reading of Closed Eyes?
How do scale, support, medium or present museum evidence shape the encounter?
What remains uncertain when visual inference is separated from documented fact?
Join the Conversation
Add your reading below, keeping observations specific and evidence clear.
References
- Musée d'Orsay, “Les Yeux clos.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Musée d'Orsay, “Redon 1840–1916.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- J. Paul Getty Museum, “Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions — Gallery Text” (2026), accessed 30 August 2026.
- Musée d'Orsay, “Madame Odilon Redon.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Wikimedia Commons, “File: Odilon Redon - Closed Eyes - Google Art Project.jpg.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
