Odilon Redon Paintings and Pastels: Introduction
Odilon Redon's colour works are often introduced as the bright second act of a career that began in black. The contrast is real, but the simple story is misleading. Pastel offered Redon colour through a dry, powdery medium closely related to the charcoal he already understood. Oil and tempera gave him other kinds of surface, scale and permanence. Across all three, faces, flowers and mythic bodies occupy spaces that rarely behave like ordinary rooms or landscapes. Colour changed what Redon's art could do without replacing the imaginative habits of the noirs.[1][2]
At a Glance
- Main colour mediapastel, oil paint and, in some works, tempera or mixed media.
- Useful turning pointcolour became increasingly prominent from around 1890, but the transition was gradual rather than a clean break.[1]
- Pastel methodRedon layered marks, used parallel lines and hatching, and sometimes combined pastel with charcoal, Conté pencil, pastel pencil or paint.[1]
- Recurring subjectsinward-looking figures, portraits, flowers, literary heroines and figures from classical myth.
- Characteristic settinga mist, cloud or coloured field in which objects can seem to float rather than occupy measured depth.[2]
- Important cautionnot every late work is a pastel, and black did not vanish from Redon's colour art.
Selected Odilon Redon paintings and pastels
Contents
- Introduction
- Colour Was a Transition, Not a Conversion
- Why Pastel Suited Redon
- Oil and Tempera Were Different Tools
- Faces, Portraits and Closed Eyes
- Flowers Between Observation and Invention
- Myth, Literature and Undefined Space
- Colour at the Scale of Decoration
- A Medium Gallery: Six Colour Works Compared
- How to Look at a Redon Colour Work
Colour Was a Transition, Not a Conversion
The year 1890 provides a useful hinge. That is the date of Closed Eyes, an oil painting in which a pale head rises against a softly modulated blue-brown field. Yet no single year divides one Redon from another. The Musée d'Orsay describes his movement from black to colour as gradual and notes that charcoal continued to appear in his pastels. The Getty similarly stresses continuity of vision: radiant flowers and hovering forms still emerge from an undefined realm comparable to that of the charcoal monsters.[1][2][4]
This distinction matters because colour is not evidence that Redon abandoned difficult or ambiguous ideas. The later pictures can appear more lyrical, but sleep, isolation, suspended action and the uneasy meeting of beauty and strangeness remain central. Nor was colour wholly absent from his earlier practice. Coloured paper, touches of pastel and mixed materials could modify the blacks of a drawing before bright colour became a dominant concern. From the 1890s, the balance shifted decisively, and Redon explored the possibilities of pastel and oil with increasing confidence; the imaginative logic, however, remained recognisably his own.[1][3]
The result is better understood as an expansion. Black had taught Redon how to make an apparition emerge from darkness and how to leave parts of an image unresolved. Colour let him produce another kind of emergence: a flower can flare against haze, a head can materialise within an aureole, or a mythic body can be held between landscape and dream. The late work does not explain the early work away. It reveals how durable Redon's methods of suggestion were.
Why Pastel Suited Redon
Pastel is dry colour held in a fragile layer on a support. The Musée d'Orsay emphasises its matte, powdery quality and its ability to absorb rather than reflect light. That physical character connects it to charcoal, another friable material whose particles can be spread, layered and disturbed. For Redon, adopting pastel therefore did not mean exchanging drawing for a completely alien form of painting. It allowed the tactile and atmospheric knowledge developed in the noirs to continue in colour.[1]
Close viewing reveals that his pastel colour is constructed, not simply filled in. The Orsay account identifies parallel lines and hatching as means of creating vibration and intensity. Layers can remain optically distinct: a dark contour, a passage of coloured strokes and a lighter haze may all participate without merging into a polished skin. Redon also worked in mixed media. Charcoal could remain under or within pastel; Conté and pastel pencils could sharpen or extend passages; pastel could enhance a painted surface. These combinations make blanket labels such as “a pastel period” inadequate.[1]
The medium also suits Redon's uncertain spaces. Powder can make an edge glow, dissolve or appear to hover. In Ophelia among the Flowers, rapidly drawn dark outlines and coloured highlights give jewel-like definition to some passages while other forms remain open and atmospheric. The National Gallery describes the image as almost abstract in its design, although its literary subject remains legible. The balance between recognition and dissolution is fundamental: Redon gives the eye enough information to identify a face or bloom, then prevents the surrounding world from settling into ordinary depth.[5]
Oil and Tempera Were Different Tools
Redon's colour art cannot be reduced to pastel. Closed Eyes, Pandora, The Chariot of Apollo, Vase of Flowers (Pink Background) and The Cyclops are all oil paintings, though their supports differ. Oil enabled Redon to build coloured fields on canvas, cardboard or panel-mounted supports and to work at sizes and formats distinct from many drawings. Museum records should govern the medium of each object; a powdery appearance in a reproduction does not make an oil painting a pastel.[4][6][7][8][11]
Tempera adds another complication. The Met records Etruscan Vase with Flowers as tempera on canvas, dating it to 1900–10. Its palms and invented or artificial blooms occupy a blue-and-ochre scheme. The work demonstrates that Redon selected among colour media rather than following one fixed recipe. It would be unsafe to infer a precise pigment mixture or sequence from appearance alone.[9]
Faces, Portraits and Closed Eyes
In colour, Redon's human figures often remain psychologically withheld. Closed eyes turn attention away from exchange with the viewer; lowered heads and profiles can produce a similar effect. Closed Eyes is especially important because its oil medium and 1890 date place it near the transition into sustained colour. The head is monumental but not fully embodied, and the surrounding field gives no dependable location. Colour makes the apparition gentler without making its condition certain.[4]
Portraits could retain more social specificity while still opening into imaginative space. In the 1901 pastel Madame Arthur Fontaine, yellow and lavender and a profusion of flowers spread behind and above the seated woman. The sitter remains recognisable as a person in a portrait, yet the setting does not behave as descriptive domestic space. Redon's colour surrounds identity with atmosphere instead of using background merely as furniture or view.[10]
The closed or averted face also links portraiture to literary imagery. Ophelia's profile in the National Gallery pastel belongs to Shakespeare's tragedy, but Redon did not construct a literal scene from the play. Her drained face is held among vivid flowers, and it remains uncertain whether she is asleep or dead. Such ambiguity is not an absence of meaning. It is the mechanism by which the picture sustains several related states—reverie, suspension and loss—without selecting just one.[5]
Flowers Between Observation and Invention
Redon's flowers can be botanically suggestive without operating as specimens. In Vase of Flowers (Pink Background), the Met identifies poppies and cornflowers among the bouquet, yet describes them as fanciful re-creations set against a misty, undefined field. The contrast is productive: attentive looking supplies structures and differences, while imagination loosens scale, colour and setting.[8]
His friendship with Armand Clavaud, curator of Bordeaux's botanical gardens, belongs to this history of sustained interest in natural forms. The Met connects that relationship to the sense of wonder evident in Redon's bouquets, where recognisable and uncertain plants can coexist. It does not follow that every flower carries a stable coded meaning. A poppy may invite associations with sleep, but the evidence of a particular picture should come before a universal flower dictionary.[10]
Flowers also let Redon organise colour without depending on conventional perspective. Stems and a vase may provide a centre, while blooms become separate pulses distributed across a field. In Flower Clouds, a pastel of about 1903, the very title joins botanical form to atmosphere. In the oil Vase of Flowers, the pink background is neither a clearly measured wall nor empty neutral space. It is an active colour environment from which the bouquet emerges.[8][12]
Myth, Literature and Undefined Space
Redon repeatedly drew on classical myth and literature, but his paintings often suspend narrative rather than recount it. The National Gallery's Ophelia concentrates Shakespeare's heroine, flowers, colour and uncertainty rather than illustrating a sequence of events. In the National Gallery of Art's Pandora, dated 1910/1912, the woman bows toward the box she holds while a coloured landscape and flower-like forms spread around her. The picture concentrates attention on a moment before consequences become visible.[5][6]
The Chariot of Apollo transforms motion in another way. The Met's oil painting of 1905–16 omits a ground plane, so horses and charioteer appear to race through boundless sky. Redon returned to the motif in more than thirty works across oil, pastel and pencil. The absence of stable ground is therefore not a failure to finish the setting; it is part of how the image detaches myth from ordinary time and place.[7]
Undefined space does not always mean calm. In The Cyclops, the giant Polyphemus looks over a rocky barrier toward the sleeping Galatea. The Kröller-Müller Museum identifies the conspicuous single eye and the unusually bright colours as sources of the painting's charged effect. Colour heightens the tension between an alluring surface and an act of watching. The dream world can be radiant and menacing at once.[11]
Colour at the Scale of Decoration
Redon's later work extended beyond autonomous easel pictures. He made decorative panels and screens for patrons and friends, using recurring flowers, trees, profiles and indefinite coloured fields on an architectural scale. A historical MoMA catalogue records commissions for interiors as well as screens, showing that decoration became a serious arena rather than a marginal sideline.[13]
This larger setting altered the viewer's encounter. A panel within a room participates in an ensemble and is seen through movement, distance and changing attention. Redon's floating forms could spread across a wall without requiring continuous narrative. Decoration gave his art a place between image and environment, while preserving the openness that makes an individual pastel or painting resist a single explanation.
A Medium Gallery: Six Colour Works Compared
Closed Eyes, 1890
This is oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, not pastel. Its restrained range and hovering head make it a threshold work: colour is present, yet the image remains close to the inward, apparition-like language of the noirs. It is held by the Musée d'Orsay.[4]
Ophelia among the Flowers, about 1905–08
This National Gallery work is pastel on paper. Dark outlines and intense coloured passages coexist with an unresolved luminous field. Its horizontal format and literary subject distinguish it from Redon's more compact, freestanding heads.[5]
Pandora, 1910/1912
The National Gallery of Art's tall, narrow Pandora is oil on canvas. The bowed profile, small box and flower-like foreground arrest the myth before its catastrophe. It must not be confused with the Met's different Pandora of about 1914.[6]
The Chariot of Apollo, 1905–16
The Met painting is oil on canvas and one version within a much larger group devoted to the motif. Its racing horses inhabit a groundless sky. Other versions use pastel or pencil, so their media and dates should not be transferred to this object.[7]
Vase of Flowers (Pink Background), about 1906
This Met still life is oil on canvas. Identifiable flowers are transformed into jewel-like colour against a misty pink field. The firmness of the vase and stems makes the surrounding spatial uncertainty especially visible.[8]
The Cyclops, about 1914
The Kröller-Müller painting is oil on cardboard mounted on panel. Polyphemus, Galatea, landscape and the enlarged eye join a mythic subject to Redon's long fascination with vision. Its brightness is not uncomplicated cheerfulness; it intensifies the strange relation between watcher and sleeper.[11]
How to Look at a Redon Colour Work
Begin with the museum label. Knowing whether the object is pastel, oil or tempera prevents surface resemblance from becoming a false technical claim. Then look for the dark structure. A contour around a face, the neck of a vase or a mesh of hatching may organise colours that initially seem to drift freely. In a pastel, move close enough to distinguish separate marks, then step back until they combine into haze or radiance.[1][5]
Next, ask what is stable and what is withheld. A title may identify Ophelia, Pandora or Apollo, but does the picture specify a precise moment, location or outcome? In a flower work, identify only the blooms the source or image supports, and notice where observation gives way to invention. Finally, compare the figure's scale with its setting. Redon's heads, flowers and mythic bodies often seem unusually large because the space around them lacks measurable distance. That imbalance is not a puzzle to solve once. It is a visual condition that keeps the familiar subject poised at the edge of an apparition.[2][8]
Preservation Changes How Pastels Are Seen
Pastel's beauty depends on particles that can remain vulnerable at the surface. The Musée d'Orsay notes that Redon used fixative but stopped doing so after 1912 because it could alter colour and flatten the bloom of the pigments. He paid close attention to framing as a means of protection.[1] Those facts explain why a museum pastel is normally encountered behind glazing and why handling, vibration and contact with the surface matter.
They also caution against treating a digital image as a complete account. Screens illuminate colour from behind; pastel absorbs light and has a material grain. Reflections from glazing may intervene in a gallery, but seeing the work at different distances can reveal relations between separate strokes, dark scaffolding and powdery haze that reproductions compress. Oil and tempera have their own condition histories, so the safest rule is to follow the holding museum's medium and conservation information for the specific object.
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
Colour became increasingly important around 1890 and especially during the later 1890s, but there was no overnight conversion. Closed Eyes is an oil painting dated 1890, while charcoal continued to appear in later pastels. The most accurate account is a gradual rebalancing: pastel, oil and other colour media expanded Redon's practice while methods of emergence, ambiguity and undefined space continued from the noirs.[1][2][4]
Neither medium can represent the whole colour practice. Pastel gave Redon a matte, powdery surface related to charcoal and supported layering, hatching and luminous broken colour. Oil served major figures, myths, flowers and repeated motifs on canvas and other supports. Tempera appears too, as in Etruscan Vase with Flowers. The subject and the specific object record are more useful than assuming one universal preference.[1][9]
Museum research identifies layering, parallel lines and hatching, along with combinations of pastel, charcoal, Conté pencil, pastel pencil and, at times, paint. Fixative could secure the vulnerable surface but might change colour and suppress its powdery bloom; after 1912 Redon stopped using it. These documented practices explain vibration and atmosphere without requiring speculative pigment recipes.[1]
There is no single reliable code for every bloom. Redon studied nature and knew the botanist Armand Clavaud; museum records identify flowers such as poppies and cornflowers in particular bouquets. Yet he freely transformed observed plants into imagined arrangements and undefined colour fields. Symbolic associations may enrich a reading, but they should be presented as interpretation unless a source establishes that Redon intended a specific meaning.[8][10]
Current collection pages place Closed Eyes at the Musée d'Orsay, Ophelia among the Flowers at the National Gallery in London, Pandora at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, The Chariot of Apollo and Vase of Flowers (Pink Background) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Cyclops at the Kröller-Müller Museum. Display status can change, so check each museum's page before travelling.[4][5][6][7][8][11]
Discussion
Use this evidence-led guide as a starting point for close looking rather than a final verdict.
Share an observation about Odilon Redon Paintings and Pastels or a source that adds useful context.
Reader Insights
Which material decision best defines Redon's practice in this group of works?
Where do you see observation and invention working together rather than as opposites?
Which work would you add to the selected group, and what would it change?
Join the Conversation
Add your reading below, keeping observations specific and evidence clear.
References
- Musée d'Orsay, “Redon 1840–1916.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- J. Paul Getty Museum, Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions — Gallery Text, accessed 30 August 2026.
- J. Paul Getty Museum, “Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Musée d'Orsay, “Les Yeux clos.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- National Gallery, London, “Odilon Redon: Ophelia among the Flowers.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, “Pandora.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Chariot of Apollo.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Vase of Flowers (Pink Background).”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Etruscan Vase with Flowers.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Fantastic Blooms: Odilon Redon in The Met Collection.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Kröller-Müller Museum, “The Cyclops.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Art Institute of Chicago, “Flower Clouds.”, accessed 30 August 2026.
- Museum of Modern Art, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin, accessed 30 August 2026.











