Odilon Redon 1840 - 1916
Bertrand- Jean Redon was born in Bordeaux to affluent parents in 1840. He became known as Odilon which was a derivative of his mother's name, Odile. He started drawing in his childhood and by the age of 15 began formal art education. His father tried to steer him towards a career as an architect but Odilon failed the exams.3
His training was diverse. He studied with Jean-Leon Gerome learnt engraving from Rodolphe Bresdin and lithography from Henri Fantin-Latour.1
His career seems to have two distinct phases. His early work was in almost monochrome but through the 1890's he introduced colour in the form of pastels and eventually used them almost exclusively. Redon's work was admired by Mattisse.
For the purposes of this investigation I'm most interested in the early work known as the noirs. My primary source for this piece of work is an article I found from 1995 which describes in some detail the way the artist achieved such a wide range of effects with so little colour.2 Redon rarely dated his work and the researchers set about trying to create a framework for dating by looking to see if there was a technical pattern that would show the evolution (and therefore the dates) of his work. They were able to take samples of the media and fixative used as well as fibres from paper from works spanning the artist's entire career. The results of the investigation gave new insights into Redon's choice of paper, media and fixative.
Redon developed many techniques to get a huge variety of textures and effects and experimented with ways of stabilising the surface of his work.2 The first noirs were created using a combinations of vine and oiled charcoal with a little compressed charcoal. He used black crayon (probably conte) very cautiously. In the mid to late 1870's Redon began to use other media like fabricated black chalk which was a much denser and harder medium. He introduced compressed charcoal to outline tonal parts of his work and later still black pastel appears. He used this in the final stages of his work for it's colour and velvety texture.
Along with the variety of materials Redon used there was also a wide range of papers and each one was carefully chosen for what it can add to both texture and colour. The researchers found the papers imbued Redons work with pale pinks and blues and the artist himself said that his noirs were all drawn on coloured paper. Redon changed the surface of his paper in his Landscape (1868) by preparing it with a base coat of powdered charcoal and one of his favourite ways of working was to lift images out of a tonal base.
In order to achieve even more tones and textures Redon developed his drawing techniques to include charcoal applied on its side and the use of fixative throughout the drawing so that he could remove elements with hard, pointed tools, sponges or his hands to give a different effect. He even reworked drawings before the fixative was dry. Redon developed what the article calls "an extraordinary range of manipulations". 2
During the 1890's Redon completed the shift to pastels. Initially he used pastel over charcoal and many of his noir techniques were in evidence. Sometimes Redon would pick up an old noir drawing and rework it in pastel but by the late 1890's he was working entirely in pastel. The old resin fixative wasn't really suitable for pastels and by the end of his career he had abandoned fixative almost completely.
Redon is new to me and looking at his work has been eye opening. I love colour and in a strange way I see it in the monochrome images of Redon. This must be because of the textures and tones he manages to introduce into his drawings. It has encouraged me look anew at my drawings and be more bolder and exploratory in what I try.
1 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494732/Odilon-Redon
2 http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v14/bp14-08.html
3 http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/redon/about/childhood.html
4 https://apah.wikispaces.com/Dark+Side+of+Human+Nature
His training was diverse. He studied with Jean-Leon Gerome learnt engraving from Rodolphe Bresdin and lithography from Henri Fantin-Latour.1
His career seems to have two distinct phases. His early work was in almost monochrome but through the 1890's he introduced colour in the form of pastels and eventually used them almost exclusively. Redon's work was admired by Mattisse.
For the purposes of this investigation I'm most interested in the early work known as the noirs. My primary source for this piece of work is an article I found from 1995 which describes in some detail the way the artist achieved such a wide range of effects with so little colour.2 Redon rarely dated his work and the researchers set about trying to create a framework for dating by looking to see if there was a technical pattern that would show the evolution (and therefore the dates) of his work. They were able to take samples of the media and fixative used as well as fibres from paper from works spanning the artist's entire career. The results of the investigation gave new insights into Redon's choice of paper, media and fixative.
Redon developed many techniques to get a huge variety of textures and effects and experimented with ways of stabilising the surface of his work.2 The first noirs were created using a combinations of vine and oiled charcoal with a little compressed charcoal. He used black crayon (probably conte) very cautiously. In the mid to late 1870's Redon began to use other media like fabricated black chalk which was a much denser and harder medium. He introduced compressed charcoal to outline tonal parts of his work and later still black pastel appears. He used this in the final stages of his work for it's colour and velvety texture.
Along with the variety of materials Redon used there was also a wide range of papers and each one was carefully chosen for what it can add to both texture and colour. The researchers found the papers imbued Redons work with pale pinks and blues and the artist himself said that his noirs were all drawn on coloured paper. Redon changed the surface of his paper in his Landscape (1868) by preparing it with a base coat of powdered charcoal and one of his favourite ways of working was to lift images out of a tonal base.
 |
| Landscape (1868) Odilon Redon Various charcoals with black chalk and black conte crayon, wiping, stumping and erasing. On cream paper altered to a golden tone. 53.6 x 75.5 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago. 2 |
Here he stumped and erased charcoal from the back and middle ground to establish the distant vistas and to provide the recession into a deep panoramic space. In the foreground he combined stumping and erasing with the darkest application of various charcoals and black conte crayon to set apart the monumental tree and isolate two figures in the vast setting. He ground the coarsest charcoal and applied it with a brush in an impasto like manner that suitably describes the uncultivated terrain surrounding the figures.2
I find the atmosphere created by Redon in the Landscape quite overwhelming. Where another artist might have made the subject pastoral or even romantic Redon creates something dark, forbidding and even sinister.
Many of Redon's drawing have a disturbing aspect. He draws demons and fantastical creatures and many of his pieces are from his imagination.
The Marsh Flower, a Sad and Human Face seems to symbolise this lonely, sad childhood. (Redon became known as a Symbolic artist). It is a lithograph from 1885.Many of Redon's drawing have a disturbing aspect. He draws demons and fantastical creatures and many of his pieces are from his imagination.
...he remembered himself as a "sad and weak" child who through ill health led a solitary existence. Advised against physical or mental exertion he "sought out the shadows." This had a huge effect on his early artistic output with its often sombre, melancholic appearance and it stirred Redon's interest in nature and imagination 3
 |
| The Marsh Flower, a Sad and Human Face (1885) Odilon Redon |
The Marsh Flower, a Sad and Human Face is a lithograph and consists of a lonely little plant, with a very human face, just as the title infers. It may represent the idea that society shuns those who are different, or just doesn't care to shed light on the unnatural and absurd. It is a sad and lonely existence for the bizarre and outlandish. But in the artwork the marsh flower-face creates its own light, and maybe Redon is telling the world that even thought the rebel being may be alone and ostracised, it still has its own beliefs and power in itself. 4
In order to achieve even more tones and textures Redon developed his drawing techniques to include charcoal applied on its side and the use of fixative throughout the drawing so that he could remove elements with hard, pointed tools, sponges or his hands to give a different effect. He even reworked drawings before the fixative was dry. Redon developed what the article calls "an extraordinary range of manipulations". 2
Redon experimented with fixative as well and the drawings have become a golden yellow through age. Unlike his contemporaries Redon welcomed this change and built it into his thinking.
During the 1890's Redon completed the shift to pastels. Initially he used pastel over charcoal and many of his noir techniques were in evidence. Sometimes Redon would pick up an old noir drawing and rework it in pastel but by the late 1890's he was working entirely in pastel. The old resin fixative wasn't really suitable for pastels and by the end of his career he had abandoned fixative almost completely.
Redon is new to me and looking at his work has been eye opening. I love colour and in a strange way I see it in the monochrome images of Redon. This must be because of the textures and tones he manages to introduce into his drawings. It has encouraged me look anew at my drawings and be more bolder and exploratory in what I try.
1 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494732/Odilon-Redon
2 http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v14/bp14-08.html
3 http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/redon/about/childhood.html
4 https://apah.wikispaces.com/Dark+Side+of+Human+Nature
No comments:
Post a Comment