Odilon Redon

Biography

Odilon Redon (1840–1916) was a French Symbolist draughtsman, printmaker and painter. Early in his career he worked almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography – his “noirs” – and gained recognition after Joris-Karl Huysmans mentioned his drawings in the 1884 novel À rebours. In the 1890s he turned to pastel and oil, abandoning the noirs after 1900. His dreamlike paintings of the early 20th century, inspired by Japanese art and leaning towards abstraction, are considered a precursor of Surrealism.