Reflection

Odilon Redon's career spanned many of the most important art movements of the late 1800s. He exhibited alongside the Impressionists in 1886, with Les XX in Brussels, and he was regarded as a leading Symbolist artist. His earliest works are charcoal drawings characterized by mystery, melancholy, and fantasy. Much of Redon’s early life was unhappy, but after undergoing a religious crisis in the early 1890s and a serious illness in 1894-95, he transformed into a much more buoyant and cheerful person, expressing himself through radiant colors in mythological scenes and flower paintings. As his art became more colorful, it also became more decorative, as you can see in our app today. His pieces were much admired by Matisse, and the Surrealists regarded Redon as one of their precursors. He was a distinguished figure by the end of his life, although he stayed a very private person.