ODILON REDON

22 April 1840, Bordeaux - 6 July 1916, Paris, France

His mother was a Creole and his father a planter from New Orleans.

During his childhood he preferred solitude and dream. But the war of 1870 stopped all that. From 1897 he began to publish collections of lithographs of a strange quality which attracted the attention of symbolists.

In 1886 he made the acquaintance of Mallarmé and illustrated the works of Baudelaire, Poe, Flaubert and Verhaeren.

The subtlety of his work is due to the fact that he was a visonary seeking out unknown beauties and new modes of expression.

In the pastels and oils of his old age his inspiration broadens. Their mysterious poetry masks him out as a fore-runner of Surrealism.

"Young girl facing left"

"Nude woman on the rocks"

"Mystical conversation"

"Cactus man"

"Two women under a red tree"

"Primitive man"

"Protect me from what I want"

"La locura"

"Christ"

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