Landscape

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Landscape

Artist Odilon Redon French, 1840-1916

Date1870-1875

DimensionsH: 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm); W: 11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm)

MediumOil on paper laid onto board

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by Thomas N. and Gill W. Bentley, Ann W. Hartmann and Frank Snug, and Dr. and Mrs. James G. Ravin, and with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey.

Object number

2010.35

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesWildenstein, A., Odilon Redon: Catalogue Raisonné, Volume III: Fleurs et Paysags, Paris, 1994, no. 1808, p. 265 (illustrated).Exhibition HistoryGeneva, Galerie Krugier, Hommage à Redon, Feb.-March 1967, no. 6.

Winterthur, Kunstmuseum, Odilon Redon, Sept.-Nov. 1983 (illustrated p. 185). (This exhibition later traveled to Bremen, Kunsthalle).

Label TextOdilon Redon is often considered a precursor to the Surrealists for his strange subjects of disembodied eyes, human-headed plants, and amoeba-like creatures. Early in his career, however, Redon made small landscape oils of his home Peyrelebade, near the commune of Listrac Médoc, and the surrounding area near Bordeaux in southwest France. These images are enchanting, mysterious scenes in which time seems suspended, a pervasive silence dominates, and the skies are utterly luminous. A strong geometry controls his compositions, balancing architecture and nature. Redon loved the region, as noted by his wife Camille, who was more enamored with all that Paris had to offer. She wrote of the locale: “The countryside is deadly sad; one must be Odilon Redon to take pleasure in it; here he is in his element: the sound of the wind singing in the pines enthralls him; his eye glistens with joy before the great lands, covered with broom [shrubs].”