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  • L'A IL E

    ODILON REDON ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS

    )

    \

  • .. . .... . ....... . . ... .. . .. . .. . ... .....

    THE ETCHINGS

    AND LITHOGRAPHS

    OF

    ODILON REDO N

    (r84o-1916)

    THE ART INSTITUTE

    OF CHICAGO

    \

  • NO. 20. PERVERSITE.

    (PROOF BEFORE DRY-POINT BACKGROUND)

  • '

    ODILON REDON

    "All my originality consists ... in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible."

    2GLORQREDON .

    "ODILON REDON . . . occupies a place apart . '' Twice with thesewordsAndre Mellerio, his best critic, has opened important studies of the artist .

    "Nowhere perhaps in the history of art or literature can one find an example of such a singular creature as Odilon Redon'' writes Roger Marx . Other critics, who have been inspired to superlatives rather than to criticism, have called him "absolutely original" and "unique. " But is the creator of "Dans le Reve" and the flower pastels so isolated? Is he really the phenomenon of his age and a person apart? Decidedly not . Redon by his psychology and cast of mind belongs to his epoch. Con-tradicting Roger Marx one might almost say, ''Nowhere perhaps in the history of art or literature can one find an artist who is more the child of his century. ' '

    He was born in 1840 in the very midst of Romanticism and in a way never escaped its hold. That is, he was continually putting fe eling before reason and intuition be-fore knowledge. His father was a "primitive," a man who had lived in the American Savannahs and adored Chateaubriand. Redon, a frail child, was brought up in the Medoc, and though part of his account in "A-Soi-Meme" may be dismissed as the conventional brooding over childhood, yet the country with its dreary wastes of sand and desolate plains must have impressed him. Add to this that he was lonely and given to day-dreams, and you have all the elements necessary to produce the typical romantic mind, overbalanced with sensibility.

    5

  • 6 ODILON REDON

    This sensibility had to find an outlet and when he was ten or eleven years of age, Redan began to draw. Put in school about the same time, he was unhappy until a drawing-teacher took an interest in him. "His first words ... were to advise me that I was myself, and that I should never make a single mark with a pencil unless my feeling and my reason were in it . " The same professor taught him to appreciate Delacroix and later took him to the Louvre . It was inevitable that in following his advice, Redan should continue to develop his particular bent of drawing, rather than subscribe to the usual academic regime. That is exactly what hap-pened. He failed the Beaux Arts, and entering the Atelier Gerome, found that his failure to render the forms of things accurately was a constant embarrassment to him. Before the model his skill completely vanished and though he worked hard he could not please Gerome .

    During these years he was particularly miserable. Like any unadjusted artist he felt that his medium must be at fault. At sixteen he had begun to study architecture; .now he turned to sculpture . He met Carat and Chin-treuil and for awhile painted a sort of mock Barbizon landscape. He went faithfully to the museums where he copied Delacroix, or rather interpreted Delacroix, through his own formula of mass and strange color. His greatest inspiration, during this part of his life, came from Armand Clavaud, a romantic botanist who was experimenting one moment with the life of the most deli-cate plant and the next was reading aloud from the poems of Edgar Allan Poe or Baudelaire.

    Round the year 1863, at Bordeaux, Redan met Ru-dolphe Bresdin who taught him something about lithog-raphy and etching. His first etchings are very close to Bresdin 's, and display mountain landscapes with medi-

  • ODILON REDON 7

    eval horsemen, strictly in the conventional taste. If Redon does not exhibit any striking ability in them, at least he does not repeat the minute, cumbersome detailof his master. Then we come to a plate (No. 10 in the catalogue of his graphic work by Andre Mellerio)which is apparently like the rest. A knight in white gallops across a stretch of lonely mountains towards a sky which is rolling up white clouds . At least that is the design that Mellerio reproduces. But in the Art Institute Collection there is another version. After .only three proofs had been pulled Redon suddenly turned the plate on end. He thought he saw a head in the clouds and he goes to work to change the whole plate to suit that fancy. With burnisher he rubs out the knight; he traces the line of a woman's shoulder, and darkens other por-tions of the design. ''My father used to say to me 'Look at the clouds. Do you see moving forms there the way I do?' ... and I passed hours following, with infinite pleasure, the marvelous shimmering of their fleeting changes ."

    The altered plate, from which he printed one proof and then destroyed the copper, is important to a study of Redon's mind, because it means that as early as 1865or 1866he was willing to sacrifice a more or less repre-sentational design, over which he must have worked hard, for an entirely fantastic design, executed on a whim of the moment. It means that his inner eye was already stronger than his realistic eye. Obviously, he did not realize the significance of the plate, for about the same time he tried to be a realist, applying the palette of Courbet.

    It is clear that these years represent the crisis in Redon's art. Discouraged by every effort to express real appearances he was thrown back on the world of unreal

  • o.N

  • ODILON REDON 9

    appearances, the imagination. His problem, which is the usual one of the misunderstood romantic, was to create a complete dream-world out of the impressions, feelings and sensations of his outer life. The discovery of charcoal as a medium helped him in this problem. Delighted by its rich black and subtle grays, he gave up trying to paint in color. After he had made a number of drawings, he wished to multiply them and thought of lithography, then a much-rejected medium. Fantin-Latour helped him with the process and in 1879 appeared his first collection of plates, Dans le Reve. It had taken him thirty years to complete his vision and to find a medium which would successfully interpret it.

    He needed subjects to stimulate this vision and these he found not in the field of art, as much as in the field of romantic literature . It is clear that although Redon has certain sympathies with Delacroix, Leonardo da Vinci, Diirer and Rembrandt, and though he dedicated one set of plates to Goya, he was less influenced by the art of these men than he was by the art of words. His journal is full of prose-poems, and he is fond of long descriptive titles for his lithographs. At least three of his own series are connected with romantic terms . ''La Nuit' 'was a favorite word of the period, which expressed all the mystery and terror of night; "Songes" and "Le Reve" did not mean the dreams which come from well-deserved slumber, but the hallucinations of the mind during sleep or day-dreaming.

    In his designs for Poe, Baudelaire and Flaubert, Redon responded similarly to the magic of words. He did not illustrate the text exactly; he produced what he called "correspondences." Here, as he tells us himself, the unconscious mind was of the greatest benefit to him. A word or a phrase, dropped into his nervously receptive

  • 10 ODILON REDON

    mind, started a train of images which expressed them-selves on paper almost without his help. At other times he would vary this automatic drawing with minute studies from nature . After having made a certain number of these he would be seized with an urge to create, and putting away the representations, would rapidly draw his own version. The ''correspondences'' are particu-larly clear in the three albums of plates made for the Tentation de Saint-Antoine. Flaubert possessed a remark-able visual sense, and Redon produced some of his most compelling designs to illustrate this strange mixture of drama, grand opera, novel , epic and ballet.

    Not only romantic literature but romantic science furnished him with material. In Les Origines (1883), he found organic evolution a source fora new decoration. The immense scale of the prehistoric period, and the minutely organized world revealed through the micro-scope were further stimulants, and he was much struck by the inexhaustible fecundity of nature , and the muta-tions and sports of organic form.

    But if Redon found material for his vision in literature and in science, it was from the poetry of the Symbolist group that he derived at least a part of his method. The Symbolists, under the leadership of that somewhat sterile professor of aesthetics, Stephane Mallarme, were at their height round 1885 In their poetic theories they insisted on the obscure and the mysterious. Mallarme, whom Redon knew well, preached the value of suggestion1

    and in following thistenet, the artist was departing strikingly from his contemporaries the Impressionists. Monet and Renoir he admired and often defended but he

    1 As a good example of Mallarme's indirectness we may take a sen-tence from his criticism of Redon. "In your silences," he wrote, "youruffle the plumage of dreams and of night."

  • ODILON REDON II

    found their art a little too explicit. He preferred the frag-ment, the "half-word." "My designs," he was fond of saying, "inspire and do not define."

    Mallarme decreed that a poem should have a chief metaphor, and in Redon's art you find at least three main symbols. The first is the familiar "dream-face" of the Romantics. Redon's version is a curious, half-morbid conception, with shallow forehead, large staring eyes, and a mouth like a slit. He employs the same'profile to illustrate Poe's Lenore and in his plates of Folie and Britnnhilde. Turned full face, with eyes hollowed out it resolves itself into the features of Christ. Flowers, which were to Redon, "half plant, half animal" he used for their qualities of enigmatic life. His third symbol; that of a horse with wings, represents material bodies lifted to the heights by imagination. The tragedies of Beller-ophon and Phaeton result when material bodies are car-ried away by the intoxication of the infinite. Closely con-nected is another theory of the Symbolists, that poetry, in Mallarme's words, should be'allusive music.'' Redon, who was passionately fond of music, and particularly of Berlioz and Beethoven, remarks, "My art places us like music in a world indeterminate and ambiguous.'' Sym-bolist poetry, at its best, was called "symphonic"; critics in speaking of Redon's designs have more than once referred to them by the same term.

    All this shows that Redon was particularly involved in the psychological attitudes of his time. Literature furnished him with subjects, music and Symbolist poetry, with a method. His art, psychologically considered, sets in motion a series of memeries and allusions . "I call romantic," says Roger )U\"any work of art which to produce its effect counts on the association of ideas which it sets up in the mind of the spectator."

  • 12. ODILON REDON

    But it would be unfair to Redon to stop here, leaving the impression that he was completely romantic. There is another side to his art, as shown by his serious study of form. ' I call classical the work which to provoke emotion depends on its own formal organization,' ' con-tinues Roger Fry in the same definition. On his objective side, Redon is certainly classical. Though he illustrated Poe and Flaubert, it was to Montaigne and Saint-Simon that he turned for his pleasure, and he once conceived the project of an album for the Pensees of Pascal, who is the master of the logical vision. He was not, in spite of his connection with literature, a "literary" painter. Des Esseintes, the hero of Huysmans' A Rebours is made to admire the work of Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon. The contrast is significant. Moreau was a cold "liter-ary'' draughtsman, and his plates of Salome and David are heavy with the freight of romantic stage-setting. Any formal sense is lost in the multiplication of antique detail. In such a plate as his Orestes the eye wanders, lighting on swinging lamps, marble urns, and inlaid pillars until at last it seeks out the hero, fallen before a late Empire fireplace .

    Redon, from his study of music, doubtless early realized the direct emotional effect of form . Even in his automatic designing, he always subordinated, and kept to a central plan. Etching he gave up, partly because it was a medium that tempted him to extraneous detail. Charcoal suited his plastic purpose better for it allowed him to model his designs in tremendous contrasts . He called his lithographs his "noirs " because their whole substance depended on black. "Black is the most im-portant color," he wrote. "Nothing can prostitute it ." He made countless preliminary studies, experimenting with different effects of black until the right dominant

  • ODILON REDON

    was reached. ' 'Since the beginning I have always sought for perfection in form.'' ' His blacks were varied by certain effects of luminosity which he took from the Impressionists. To the intense dark, he added a scale of delicate grays, and it is a mix-ture of these, with an occasional use of sudden white, that gives Redan's designs their direct, suggestive power. In addition he possessed-perhaps from his study of archi-tecture-a sense of abstract line and pattern. This is not unusual in a period which has the brilliant designing of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. But Redan 's patterns are more three-dimensional than theirs. His simplest head, modeled in extreme darks and lights and placed against a background which by its subtle minglings of gray is made to suggest infinite depth, has a remarkable spatial quality. It is not so much a drawing as it is a painting in charcoal for it has all the values of painting. At other times sparks of light weave a pattern out of immense dusk . A dark, heavy profile is suddenly revealed against light or a radiant mist surrounds and creates form out of darkness. In discussing Redan's psychology, we stressed his reliance on WKHfragmentary. Certain of his forms are unfinished, but their sense of modeling is so sure that the eye readily supplies the rest . His illustration of Satan and the Seven Deadly Sins for the WHQWDWLRQis a striking example.

    Not only. did Redan know how to model his figures with surety but he knew the effect of asymmetry as well. A motif, placed off-center, creates a different emotional response than if it were placed exactly. There are a series of plates in the present collection which show Redan changing the plate again and again until the proper pattern results . Certain Impressionists, following the Japanese , were able by similar arrangement to gain

  • J

    ODILON REDON

    a sense of vivacity and life, but Redan's use is more con-sistent . He did not care for the accidental movement, the "staccato" impression which they were always trying to catch. There are, however , certain recurring forms in his designs which have special rhythms of their own. He uses the circle, sometimes as a shining disk, sometimes as a slowly turning wheel. Considered spatially it becomes a sphere, an eye, or a balloon . It is frequentl y set into whirling gyroscopic motion . Flowers, halos, and suns revolve. Sometimes the edge of the design cuts the circle to an arc; the eye is carried round, and an extension of space has been gained. Another form, that of the diag-onal shaft, crosses the space like a search-light, carving out interesting relations . Very important is the ara-besque. ''Imagine arabesques,"wrote Redan, "or differ-ent kinds of meanders unrolling, not RQa surface but in space ." Again and again Redan has used this coiling or uncoiling form, of which a remarkable example is found in his design for the figure of Death.

    By 1899 he had produced some one hundred and sixty-seven lithographs and had been working in black and white for twenty years . Occasionally he had printed his plates on tinted papers and now the idea of resuming color seems to have come to him. During his period of self-imposed limitation he had fixed the forms of his art . Now he was ready for oil, pastel and water-color. In oil, he was hardly at his best; the radiance of his color seems a little dimmed by the medium, but in water-color and particularly in pastel, he produced during the last sixteen years of his life a remarkable series of designs, choosing the classic myths, girls' heads, or flowers as subjects. "I took up pastel again with the hope of giving more substance to my dreams," he wrote . Some of the flower pieces in which the ''dream-face" is

  • ODILON. REDON

    likely to appear are among his masterpieces . The flowers have become stiffened into design; the most ordinary bouquet of anemones, geraniums, and field-daisies takes on, under his manipulation, a certain eternal quality. This is partly the result of his colors- he employs a striking "orchestration" of prismatic green, orange, violet and blue-and partly because he replaces the usual Impressionist pastel, made up of threads of mul-tiple color, with tones contrasted in flat patterns and delicately graded in themselves. In the exotic quality of his flowers, Redon shows his romantic outlook; in the precision of drawing and the balance of design, he is classical.

    But this was Redon's genius: to combine the psychol-ogy of his time with that feeling for form whic,h belongs to all periods of art. Every great imaginative artist has paid tribute to his age; El Greco's pietistic fervors no longer convince us; Blake's angels often have a late Georgian look; Albert Ryder's nymphs are a little Victorian, but the formal qualities in these men remain to move us. This is the case with Odilon Redon; part of him is already lost in the nineteenth century but part of him belongs to art. D. C. R.

  • THE ART

    I N 192.0, the Art Institute purchased from the widow of Odilon Redon the artist 's own collection of his etchings and lithographs, probably the most com-plete representation of his graphic work in existence. It is well known that though Redon owed his working knowledge of processes to Rudolphe Bresdin, it was Fantin-Latour who suggested lithography to him as a means of multiplying his charcoal drawings . the artist's evaluation of this medium we have his own words : must respect the black,'' he wrote. ''Noth-ing prostitutes it . It does not please the eye and it awakens no sensuality. It is the agent of the mind far more than the most color of the palette or the prism. And so good engraving will more likely be enjoyed in a serious country, where out-of-door since it is less clement, makes man stay at home cultivat-ing his own thought, as in Northern lands for example, and not in those of the where the sun takes us out of doors and charms us. It is hardly considered at all in France, except when cheapened by color, which destroys the engraving value, giving it a different result and mak-ing it approach a chromo."

    Andre Mellerio, who compiled a catalogue raisonne of Redon's graphic work, listed twenty-six etchings . The present collection has twenty-four others of different states, and three evidently not known to Mellerio. In this medium, the artist shows the influence of Bresdin, particularly in the "Cavalier Galopant" (Mellerio No. 10), of which the collection possesses another example, and in the "Cavalier dans l'Attente" (Mellerio No. 7), of which we have a state not mentioned by Mellerio

    16

  • ODILON REDON 17

    before the plate was cut down and with a lightly sketched study of the upper part of the horseman in the margin. Redon's etchings range from his earliest efforts of 1861 to 1866, to his final plate in 1913, with occasional plates between 1866 and 1888, and one each in the years 1888, 1891, and 1892..

    Of his litho graphs, the collection comprises some three hundred and twenty-nine impressions of the one hundred and eighty-one subjects listed by Mellerio. The first were published in 1879 and there followed a constant production until the year 1908. In 1882-, in-spired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe, he dedicated his album, "A Edgar Poe," and the next year he printed six lithographs, ''Hommage a Goya.'' The three series illus-trating the "Tentation de Saint-Antoine," ten in 1888, six in 1889, and twenty-four in 1896, interpreted the Flaubert text, and there are six lithographs illustrating "la Maison Hantee," a translation of Bulwer-Lytton's "House and the Brain" and six "Songes" dedicated to the memory of Armand Clavaud, both published in 1896. Finally his last album, twelve designs for the "Apoca-lypse de Saint-Jean" appeared in 1899

    In 189o, there had been published by the Evely process on copper, nine reproductions from designs interpreting "Les Fleurs du Mal" of Charles Baudelaire. By the same process there exists, in our collection, a self-portrait described by Mellerio in a note following No. 81 in his catalogue. W. McC. McK.

  • r

    THE

    ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS

    OF

    ODILON REDON

  • NO. 7. CAVALIER DANS L' ATTENTE. (PROOF BEFORE PLATE WAS CUT DOWN)

  • l THE ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS

    OF ODILON REDON

    NOTE: The priors are numbered according ro "Odilon Redon " by Andre Mellerio (Societe pour l'Erude de Ia Gravure Francaise) Paris, I9I3 Variations from Mellerio's descriptions are specially noted and prints not mentioned in his catalog are marked with an (*). Some of these variations are contained in no res in French script occurring through-our the collecrion which are taken robe by Madame Redon.

    '

    I. CHAPELLE DFS PYRENEES. c. I86r.

    2.. LE GUE. 1865

    3. LES DEUX PETITS CAVALIERS. 1865.a. Before shading on rocks in lower right marked Ietat" by Mme . Redon.

    b. As described in Mellerio .

    4 LUTTE D E CAVALIERS. 1865.

    5. BATAILLE . 1865.*a. Proof before shading on neck of horse and

    figure in lower right . b. As described by Mellerio.

    6. LA PEUR. 1865. *a. Proof before signature in plate lower left. b. As described by Mellerio.

    7 CAVALIER DANS L' ATTENTE 1866. *a. Proof before plate was cut down; small pen

    and ink sketch of figure lower center (p. 2.0). b. As described by Mellerio.

    2.1

  • CATALOGUE

    8. CAVALIER DANS LES MONTAGNES. r866.

    9 CAVALIER SOUS UN CIEL D'ORAGE. 1866. 1stproof. 2nd proof.

    10. CAVALIER GALOPANT. C. 1866.

    rob is. Plate No . ro changed as follows: clouds in center of plate converted into . nude figure. Horse and rider obliterated and entire left portion of plate reworked. Marked "unique" by Mme. Redan (illustrated p. 8).

    II. PAYSAGE DE MONTAGNES . C. r866.

    12. SAINT-JEAN-PIED-DE-PORT. r866.

    13. CROQurs. Before r87o.

    14. DAVID. C. 1880.

    I). TOBIE. C. r88o.

    r6.

    r8.

    19.

    20.

    rst state-marked 2 eme etat" by Mme. Redon. 2.nd state- marked "epreuve unique" by Mme.

    Redon. 3rd state-marked "1 er etat" by Mme. Redon.

    VISION DE REVE. 1880. *Proof before plate was cut down and tree at left

    removed; marked "epreuve unique" by Mme. Redan.

    MAUVAISE GLOIRE. 1886.

    CAIN ET ABEL. 1886.

    PETIT PRELAT. DRYPOINT. 1888.

    PERVERSITE. I89I. *a. Proof before drypoint background and before

    finely scratched modeling on shoulders marked "1er etat'' by Mme. Redan (illustrated p. 4).

    b. As described in Mellerio.

  • CATALOGUE 25

    21 PASSAGE D uneAME. 1891Frontispiece for La Passante, roman d'une ame, by

    Adrien Remade.

    22. PRINCESSE MALEINE. 1892. This is also known as The Little Madonna.

    23. ENIGME. Dry-point. 1892.

    2.4. LE LIVRE. 1892. This is also known as Sainte Therese .

    25. SCIAPODE. 1892.

    1.5bis EX-LIBRIS. 1913. a. Proof. 1893

    *b. Proof. Hair added in dry-point. Small hair lines left side lower lip.

    c. Frontispiece to Mellerio Catalogue .

    *25ter PAYSAGE AVEC ARBRE (illustrated p. 22).

    *25qttaterPORTE-ETENDARD TRAVERSANT LE RUISSEAU. a. As illustrated p. 24. b. Same with pen work.

  • LITHOGRAPHS

    DANS LE REVE

    (An album of ten lithographs and a frontispiece. r879.) 2.6. COUVERTURE-FRONTISPICE. 2.7. I. Eclosion (illustrated p. 2.8) . 2.8. II. GERMINATION. 2.9. III. LA ROUE. 30. IV. LIMBES. 31. V. LEJOUEUR. 32.. VI. GNOME. 3 3 . VII. FELINERIE . 34 VIII. VISION.

    a. One of the former states mentioned in Mellerio. Before the wreath in hand of the right figure. Base of left column not definitely formed.

    b. State described in Mellerio. 3 5. ix. TRISTE MONTEE. 36. X. SUR LA COUPE.

    a. One of the former states mentioned in Mellerio. Before signature lower right . Base of sundial and helmet not modeled.

    b. State described in Mellerio.

    A EDGAR POE (An album of six lithographs and a frontispiece,

    dedicated to Edgar Poe by Odilon Redon, showing the influence of Poe, but not directly illustrating his work. r882..) 3 7. COUVERTURE-FRONTISPICE. 38. I. L'OEIL, COMME UN BALLON BIZARRE SE DIRIGE VERS

    L'INFlNI.

    39 II. DEVANT LE NOIR SOLEIL DE LA MELANCOLIE, . LENOR APPARAIT.

    2.6

  • CATALOGUE

    40. III. UN MASQUE SONNE LE GLAS FUNEBRE. 41. IV. A L'HORIZON, L' ANGE DES CERTITUDES, ET, DANS

    LE CIEL SOMBRE, UN REGARD INTERROGATEUR.

    42. V. LE SOUFFLE QUI CONDUIT LES ETRES EST AUSSI DANS LES SPHERES.

    *a . Proof before letters and before faces in lower portion.

    b. State described in Mellerio. 43. Vl. LA FOLIE.

    LES ORIGINES (An album of eight lithographs and a frontispiece.

    r883 .) Without letters. 44 COUVERTURE-FRONTISPJCE. 45 I. QUAND s'EVEILLAIT LA VIE AU FOND DE LA MATIERE

    OBSCURE.

    46. II. IL Y EUT PEUT-ETRE UNE VISION PREMIERE ESSAYEE DANS LA FLEUR.

    47 III. LE POLYPE DIFFORME FLOTTAIT SURLES RIVAGES, SORTE DE CYCLOPE SOURIANT ET HIDEUX.

    48. IV. LA SIRENE SORTIT DES FLOTS, VETUE DE DARDS. 49 V. LE SATYRE AU CYNIQUE SOURIRE. 50. VI. IL Y EUT DES LUTTES ET DE VAINES VICTOIRES.

    )I. VII. L'AILE IMPUISSANTE N'ELEVA POINT LA BETE EN

    CES NO IRS ESP ACES.

    )2. VIII. ET L'HOMME PARUT; INTERROGEANT LE SOL D'ou

    IL SORT ET QUI L'ATTIRE, IL SE FRAY A LA VOlE VERS

    DE SOMBRES CLARTES.

    53. CENTAURE VISANT LES NUES.

    HOMMAGE A GOYA (Album of six lithographs dedicated to Goya by

    Redan. r885.) 54. I. DANS MON REVE, JE VIS AU CIEL UN VISAGE DE

    MYSTERE.

  • No. 2 7 . ECLOSIO N

  • CATALOGUE

    55. II. LA FLEUR DU MARECAGE, UNE TETE HUMAINE ET

    TRISTE.

    56. III. UN FOU DANS UN MORNE PAYSAGE. 57. IV. IL Y EUT AUSSI DES ETRES EMBRYONNAIRES.

    58. v. uN ETRANGE JONGLEuR. *a. Before tassel lower right and before leaves

    across upper right portion. Without letters. Marked Ieretat" by Mme. Redon.

    b. As described in Mellerio. 59 VI. AU REVElL j' ApercusLA DEESSE DE L'INTELLIGIBLE

    AU PROFIL SEVERE ET DUR.

    6o. L' OEUF. (Trial-piece not included in the album.) a. Before faces in background at right; before

    shadow covering right eye; before table is defined lower right.

    b. As described in Mellerio. 61. PROFIL DE LUMIERE.

    LA NUIT (An album of six lithographs. 1886.)

    62. I. A LA VIEILLESSE. a. Marked "epreuve d'essai" by Mme. Redon. b. With letters.

    63. II. L'HOMME FUT SOLITAIRE DANS UN PAYSAGE DE NUIT.

    64. III. L' ANGE PERDU OUVRIT ALORS DES AILES NOIRES. 65. IV. LA CHIMERE REGARD A AVEC EFFROI TO UTES CHOSES. 66. V. LES PRETRESSES FURENT EN ATTENTE. 67. VI. ET LE CHERCHEUR ETAIT A LA RECHERCHE INFINIE.

    68. BRUNNHILDE. Published without text in the Revue wagnerienne.

    1886. Proof on heavy white paper.

  • NO. JI6. PARSIFAL

  • CATALOGUE

    69. CIME NOIRE. 1887. Published without text 1n the Revue independante.

    70. JEUNE FILLE. 1887. a. Proof of earlier state mentioned in Mellerio.

    Before folds in headdress upper right were erased.

    b. Proof of state described in Mellerio. 71. CHRIST. 1887. 72... ARAIGNEE. 1887.

    a. Proof of earlier state mentioned in Mellerio. Before shadow across face was darkened.

    b. Proof before signature and letters. c. As described in Mellerio.

    73. MENU POUR LE DINER DES LITHOGRAPHES )5$1&$,6DU I er AVRIL. 1887.

    74 L'IDOLE. Frontispiece for Les Soirs by Emile Verhaeren, 1887.

    LE JURE (An album of seven lithographs for Le Jure, a "mono-

    drame" in five acts by Edmond Picard. 1887.) 75 J. UN HOMME DU PEUPLE, UN SAUVAGE. 76. II. DANS LE DEDALE DES BRANCHES LA BLEME FIGURE

    APP ARAISSAIT. . .

    77 III. UNE CLOCHE BATTAIT DANS LA TOUR . a. As described in Mellerio.

    *b. Plate re-worked. Arches lower center ac-centuated. Dark mass to left of tower scraped to the semblance of an arch.

    78. IV. PAR LA FENTE DU MUR, UNE TETE DE MORT FUT PROJETEE.

    *a. Earlier state before drawing was reduced in size ( H. 2..38-L. 184).

    b. As described in Mellerio.

  • CATALOGUE

    79 V. N'Y A- T-IL PAS UN MONDE INVISIBLE. So. VI. DRAMATIQUE ET GRANDIOSE AVEC SA FIGURE DE

    PRETRESSE DRUIDIQUE ....

    Sr. VII. L E REVE S AchevePAR LA MORT.

    S2. DES ESSEINTES. 1SSS. A frontispiece without text for A Rebours by ]. K.

    Huysmans.

    TENTATION DE SAINT-ANTOINE

    (The first series of ten lithographs and a frontispiece for Gustave Flaubert's text. 1SSS.) S3 . COUVERTURE- FRONTISPICE.

    a. Proof on white paper. b. As described in Mellerio .

    S4. I. ... D'ABORD UNE FLAQUE D'EAU, ENSUJTE UNE PROSTITUEE , L E COIN D'UN TEMPLE, UNE FIGURE DE

    SOLDAT, UN CHAR AVEC D EUX CHEVAUX BLANCS QUI

    SE CABRENT.

    85. II. C EstLE DIABLE, PORTANT SOUS SES DEUX AILES LES

    SEPT PECHES CAPITAUX ... .

    86. III. . . . ET UN GRAND OISEAU QUI DESCEND DU CIEL VIENT SABATTRE SUR LE SOMMET D E SA CHEVELURE.

    a. Proof without letters . b. As described in Mellerio.

    87. IV. IL HAUSSE LE VASE D'AIRAIN.

    88. V . ENSUITE PARAIT UN ETRE SINGULIER, AYANT UNE TETE D'HOMME SUR UN CORPS DE POISSON.

    S9. VI. c'EsT UNE TETE DE MORT, AVEC UNE COURONNE DE ROSES. E LLE DOMINE UN TORSE DE FEMME D'UNE

    BLANCHEUR NACREE.

    90. VII.. . .. LA CHIMERE AUX YEUX VERTS TOURNOIE, A BOlE .

    91. VIII. ET TO UTES SORTES DE BETES EFFROY ABLES SUR-GISSENT.

  • CATALOGUE 33

    92 . IX. PARTOUT D ES PRUNELLES FLAMBOIENT. 93 X . .. . ET DANS LE DISQUE MEME DUSOLEIL.RAYONNE

    LA FACE DE JESUS-CHRIST.

    A GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (The second series of the Tentation de Saint-Antoine con-

    sisting of six lithographs and a frontispiece, dedicated to the author, r889.)

    The collection contains one complete set with letters and proofs without letters of Nos . 97, 98 and 99 94 FRONTISPICE.

    a. 2 proofs of earlier state mentioned in Mellerio marked 2 epreuves uniques" by Mme. Redon.

    b. As described in Mellerio. 95. I. SAINT-ANTOINE . . . A TRAVERS SES LONGS

    CHEVEUX QUI LUI COUVRAIENT LA FIGURE , J' AI CRU RECONNAITRE AMMONARIA.

    96 . II. . .. UNE LONGUE CHRYSALIDE COULEUR DE SANG.

    97 . III. LA MORT: MON IRON IE DEPASSE TO UTES LES AUTRES.!

    98 . IV. SAINT-ANTOINE : IL DOlT Y AVOIR QUE LQUE PART DES FIGURES PRIMORDIALES DONT LES CORPS NE

    SONT QUE LES IMAGES.

    99 V. LE SPHYNX ... MON REGARD QUE RIENNE PEUT DE VIER, DEMEURE TENDU A TRAVERS LES CHOSES SUR UN HORIZON INACCESSIBLE. LA CHIMERE: MOI

    JE SUIS LEGERE ET JOYEUSE.

    100 VI. LES SCIAPODES: LA TETE LE PLUS BAS POSSIBLE,

    c'EsT LE SECRET DU BONHEUR!

    101. LEs DEBACLES. r889. A frontispiece for Les Debacles by Emile Verhaeren.

  • 34 CATALOGUE

    a. Proof on tinted paper. b. As described in Mellerio.

    102. PEGASE CAPTIF. 1889. 1st State. znd State.

    103. EL MOGHREB-AL-AKSA. 1889. A frontispiece for El Moghreb Al Aksa by Edmond

    Picard. 1890.

    104. LA DAMNATION DE L'ARTISTE, 1889. A frontispiece for La D amnation de !'Artiste, by I wan

    Gilkin. 1890. a. As described in Mellerio. b. znd State. Diagonal lines from left to right

    across lower part of drawing with letters E F within them.

    105. LES CHIMERES, 1889. A frontispiece for Les Chimeres by Jules Destree.

    1889.

    106. LES FLAMBEAUX NOIRS, 1890. A frontispiece for Les Flambeaux Noirs by Emile

    Verhaeren. 1891.

    107. YEUX CLOS, 1890. a. 1st Tirage. With title. b. znd Tirage. c. Drawing cut down. In green ink. Interlaced

    monogram, upper left ( H. 218-L. 184). d . Marked "107 effacage" by Mme. Redon.

    Drawing retraced with pen. Crude leaf studies in lower portion. Printed in blue ink (H. 294-L. 230).

    108. SERPENT-AUREOLE. 1890.

    109. SAINTE ET CHARDON. 1891.

  • CATALOGU E

    SONGES

    35

    (An album of six lithographs dedicated to the memory of Armand Clavaud, r891.)

    110. I. ... c'ETAIT UN VOILE, UNE EMPREINTE. a . Without letters on chine applique. b. With letters on chine volant.

    III. II . ET LA-BAS L' IDOLE ASTRALE, L'APOTHEOSE. *a. Proof before drawing was reduced in size.

    Without heavy shading to left of shoulder of figure and less tone throughout (H. 287-L. 224).

    b . Without letters on chine applique. c. With letters on chine volant.

    112. III . LUEUR PRECAIRE, UNE TETE A L'INFINI sus-PENDUE. a . Without letters on chine applique. b . With letters on chine volant.

    113. IV. SOUS L'AILE D'OMBRE, L'ETRE NOIR APPLIQUAIT UNE ACTIVE MORSURE. a. Without letters on chine applique. b. With letters on chine volant.

    114. V. PELERIN DU MONDE SUBLUNAIRE. a. Without letters on chine applique. b. With letters on chine applique. c. With letters on chine volant.

    II). VI. LE JOUR. a. Without letters on chine applique. b . With letters on chine volant.

    II6. PARSIFAL. I892 (illustrated On p . 30).

    II7. DRUIDESSE. 1892. a. Without letters. b. With letters, upper right.

  • NO . 120. ARD RE

  • CATALOGUE 37

    1I8. ENTRETIEN MYSTIQUE. 1892. a. Without letters. b. With letters, upper right.

    I 19. LE LISEU R . 1892.

    120. ARBRE, 1892 (illustrated on p. 36). a. Without letters . b. With letters.

    121. LES TENEBRES. A frontispiece for Les Tenebres, by Iwan Gilkin,

    1892.

    122 L'AILE, 1893 (illustrated on cover). a. Without letters. b. With letters, upper left.

    [23. LUMIERE. 1893 a. Without letters . b. With letters.

    124. CHEVALERIES SENTIMENTALES . 1893 A frontispiece for Chevaleries sentimentales by F.

    Herold. Printed in green ink.

    125. MON ENFANT. 1893

    126. CELLULE AURICULAIRE. 1894. a. Without letters on chine applique. b. Without letters, Japan paper.

    127. CHE VAL AILE . 1894. Without letters on chine applique .

    128. HANTISE . 1894-1st State. Without letters . znd State. Without letters .

    129. LE COURSIE R. 1894. a . Proof on heavy cream paper without letters. b. Same with artist's instructions to printer. c. On chine applique with Letters .

  • 130.

    1 33

    CATALOGUE

    BunnhildeCrepusculeDes DIEux). 1894. a. On heavy cream paper (seep. 40) . b. As described in Mellerio.

    L0

    ART CELESTE. 1894 a. Wi thout letters on chine volant. b. With letters on chine applique. c. Withleft portion cut off as described in note

    in Mellerio. L E BUDDHA . 1895. Buddha : On M'a mene dans les ecoles. Jen savais

    plus que les docteurs . From Tentation de Saint-Antoine by Gustave Flaubert. a. I st State. With letters. b. 2nd State. Without letters.

    CENTAURE VISANT LES NUES. 1895a. Without letters in green ink. b. Same in black ink. c. With letters (faulty printing).

    TENTATION DE SAINT-ANTOINE

    (The third series of the Tentation de Saint-Antoine con-sisting of twenty-four lithographs illustrating the text of Gustave Flaubert, 1896.) The collection contains two complete sets-with and without letters. 134 I. FRONTISPICE .

    a. Orange ink. b. Violet ink . c. From canceled plate. Green ink.

    135. II. SAINT-ANTOINE: AU SECOURS, MON DIEU! 136. III. ET PARTOUT CE SONT DES COLONNES D E BASALTE,

    . . . L A LUMIERE TOMBE DES VOUTES.

    137 IV. MES BAISERS ONT L E GOUT D'UN FRUIT QUI SE (FONDRAIT DANS TON CCEUR. . . TU ME DE-

    DAIGNES! ADIEU !

  • CATALOGUE 39

    138 . V . DES PLEURS TOMBENT, ET LA TETE D'UN PYTHON l'ARAIT.

    I 3 9 VI. DANS L' OMBRE DES GENS PLEURENT ET l'RIENT ENTOUREs D' AUTRES QUILES EXHORTENT

    140. VII. ... ET IL DISTINGUE UNE PLAINE ARIDE ET MAMELONNEUSE.

    141. VIII. ELLE TIRE DE SA POITRINE UNE EPONGE TOUTE NOIRE, LA COUVRE DE BAISERS.

    142. IX .... JE ME SUIS ENPONCE DANS LA SOLITUDE . J'HADITAIS L' ARBRE DERRIERE MOL

    143 X . HELENE (ENNOIA). I44 XI. IMMEDIATEMENT SURGISSENT TROIS DRESSES . 145 XII. L'INTELLIGENCE PUT A MOr! JE DEVINS LE

    BUDDHA.

    146. XIII .. .. ET QUE DES YEUX SANS TETE PLOTTAIENT COMME DES MOLLUSQUES .

    147 XIV . OANNES: MOl, LA PREMIERE CONSCIENCE DU CHAOS, J'AI SURGI DE L ' ABIME POUR DURCIR LA

    MATIERE, .POUR REGLER LES FORMES .

    148. XV. VOICI LA BONNE- DEESSE, L ' IDEENNE DES MON-TAGNES.

    149 XVI. JE SUIS TOUJOURS LA GRANDE ISIS! NUL N ' A ENCORE SOULEVE MON VOILE! MON FRUIT EST LE

    SOLEIL!

    150. XVII. IL TOMBE DANS L' ABIME, LA TETE EN BAS. 151. XVIII. ANTOINE: QUEL EST LE BUT DE TOUT CELA?

    LE DIABLE: IL N'Y A PAS DE BUT!

    152. XIX. LA VIEILLE : Q UE CRAINS-TU? UN LARGE TROU NOIR! IL EST VIDE PEUT- ETRE?

    153 XX . LA MORT: c'EST MOl Q UI TE RENDS SERIEUSE; ENLA~ONS-NOUS.

    154 XXI. ... j'Al QUELQUEFOIS APER~U DANS LE CIEL COMME DES FORMES D'ESPRITS .

  • NO. 13 0 . BRUNNHILDE (cREPUSCULE DES DIEUX)

    J c

  • CATALOGUE

    *a. Earlier state . Before face in background right center and form in lower left center. Figure at left of sphinx in full light. (H. 27o- L. 227).

    b. Without letters . c. Same in green and black ink. d. With letters.

    I 55. XXII. . . . LES BETES DE LA MER RONDES COMME DES OUT RES.

    *a. Before drawing was reduced in size . Without letters (H. 26o-L. 194).

    *b. Same. Additional shading across upper por-tion.

    c. With letters as described in Mellerio. I)6. XXIII. DES PEUPLES DIVERS HABITENT LES PAYS DE

    L'OCEAN.

    1)7 XXIV. LE JOUR ENFIN PARAIT, ... ET DANS LE DISQUE MEME DU SOLEIL, RAYONNE LA FACE DE

    JESUS-cHRIST.

    1)8. VIEUX CHEVALIER, 1896. Chine applique without letters.

    I 59 LE MOUVEMENT IDEALISTE EN PEINTURE . A frontispiece for Le mottvement idealiste en peintttre,

    by Andre Mellerio. 1896. a. On Japan paper. b. On chine applique.

    LA MAISON HANTEE

    (Six lithographs and a frontispiece for The House and the Brain by Bulwer-Lytton, in the translation of Rene Philipon, r896.)

    The collection contains one complete set with letters and Nos. r63 to 166 inclusive, without letters.

  • ~ CATALOGUE

    160. FRONTISPICE. I 61. I. JE VIS DESS.PS LE CONTOUR V APOREUX D' UNE FORME

    H.UMAINE. 162.. II. .JE VIS UNE LUEUR LARGE ET PALE. 163. III. IL TENAIT SES YEUX FIXEs SUR MOl AVEC UNE EX-

    PRESSION SI ETRANGE. I IV. SELON TOUTE APPARENCE, c'ETAIT UNE MAIN DE

    CHAIR ET DE SANG COMME LA MIENNE.

    !6). V. DES LARVES SI HIDEUSES. 166. VI. LA LARGEUR DE L'APLATISSEMENT DE L'os

    FRONTAL.

    167. LA SULAMITE. 1897. I68. BEATRICE. 1897

    Without letters in color on chine applique. 169. TETE D'ENFANT AVEC FLEURS. 1897,

    *a . Earlier state. Much of final work only sug-gested. On chine volant (H. 317-L. 2.45).

    b. Marked "premier etat'' by Redon. On chine volant ( H. 2.92.-L. 2.45).

    c. Same on green paper. d . As described in Mellerio. Monochrome. e. Same. Black ink.

    170. ARI. 1898. Portrait of Redon's son at the age of ten years.

    *a. Proof before letters. b. rst State.-In black on yellow paper. c. znd State.

    171. HOMME SUR PEGASE. 1898. a. On chine applique. b. On Japan paper.

    I 72.. LE SOMMEIL. The a-rtist thought this plate ought to have been

    called: Sulamite.

  • CATALOGUE 43

    APOCALYPSE DE SAINT -JEAN

    (An album of twelve lithographs and a frontispiece, 1899) 173. COUVERTURE-FRONTISPICE.

    a. Before letters lower center. b. With letters lower center.

    174 I. ET IL AVAIT DANS SA MAIN DROITE SEPT ETOILES, ET DE SA BOUCHE SORTAIT UNE EPEE AIGUE A D EUX TRANCHANTS.

    *a. Without letters. Before rays from hilt of sword.

    b. With letters . 175. II. PUIS JE VIS, DANS LA MAIN DROITE DE CELUI QUI

    ETAIT ASSIS SUR LE TRONE, UN LIVRE ECRIT DEDANS

    ET DEHORS, SCELLE DE SEPT SCEAUX.

    Without letters.

    176. III. ... ET CELU I QUI ETAIT MONTE DESSUS SE NOM-MAlT LA MORT.

    Without letters, before monogram. 177 PUIS L'ANGE PRIT L'ENCENSOIR.

    Without letters. 178. V. ET IL TOMBE DU CIEL UNE GRANDE ETOILE AR-

    D E NTE.

    *a . Before additional horizontal lines at bottom and interlaced monogram at right . Face in upper left not defined. Locust upper right not finished; without letters.

    b. As described in Mellerio, without letters.

    179 VI. . UNE FEMME REVETUE DU SOLEIL. Without letters .

    180. VII. ET UN ANGE SORTIT DU TEMPLE QUI EST AU CIEL, AYANT LUI AUSSI UNE FAUCILLE TRANCHANTE.

    Without letters and monogram.

  • NO . 196. PORTRAIT DE ROGER MARX

  • CATALOGUE 45

    181. VIII. APREs CELA JE VIS DESCENDRE DU CIEL UN ANGE

    QUI AVAIT LA CLEF DE L'ABIME, ET U NE GRANDE

    CHAINE EN SA MAIN.

    Without letters.

    182.. IX .... ET LE LIA POUR MILLE ANS .

    Without letters.

    183 . X. ET LE DIABLE QUI LES SEDUISAIT, FUT JETE DANS

    L'ETANG DE FEU ET DE SOUFRE, OU EST LA BETE ET

    LE FAUX PROPHETE.

    With letters.

    184. XI. ET MOl, JEAN, JE VIS LA SAINTE CITE, LA NOU-

    VELLE JERUSALEM, QUI DESCENDAIT DU CI EL,

    D'AUPREs DE DIEU .

    Without letters and monogram.

    18). XII. c'EsT MOl, JEAN, QUI AI VU ET QUI AI QUI CES

    CHOSES.

    With letters.

    PLANCHES D'ESSAI

    (Four trial plates executed in 19oo; one plate lost .)

    186. I. FEMME DE .PROFIL VERS LA GAUCHE.

    187. II . .A GAUCHE, EN BAS, UNE TETE D'ENFANT. 188. III. UNE FEMME TOURNEE VERS LA GAUCHE . SON

    LONG CORPS MINCE REJETTE LE BUSTE EN ARRIERE,

    FAISANT SAILLIR LA POITRINE EN UNE COURBE

    GRACIE USE.

    189. TETE DE FEMME AVEC FLEURS AU CORSAGE. 1900.

    a. On grey paper.

    b. From canceled stone.

    PORTRAITS 190. EDOUARD VUILLARD. 1900.

    *a. Earlier state on heavy cream paper before

    heavier lines on forehead and beard.

    b. As described in Mellerio.

  • CATALOGUE

    191. PIERRE BONNARD. 1902.. *a. Earlier state on heavy cream paper. b. As described in Mellerio.

    192.. PAUL SI!RUSIER. 1903 0 a. As described in Mellerio. b. Bistre on grey paper.

    193. MAURICE DENIS. 1903. a. As described in Mellerio. b. Same as chine volant.

    194 RICARDO VINES. 1903. *a. Earlier state on heavy cream paper before

    slight changes in shading. *b. Same. Bistre on green paper. c. As described in Mellerio.

    195 MLLE. JULIETTE DODU. 1904-a. Trial proof in black on chine volant . b . As described in Mellerio. c. Same. Sanguine .

    196. ROGER MARX. 1904 (illustrated p. 44). 197 LLOBET. 1908.

    LES FLEURS DU MAL

    (Nine designs interpreting the poems of Charles Baudelaire. Bruxelles, Dema.n. 1890, by the Evely process on copper.)

    , 198". I. COUVERTURE-FRONTISPICE. 199 II. JE T'ADORE A L'EGAL DE LA VOUTE NOCTURNE, 0

    VASE DE TRISTESSE, 0 GRANDE TACITURNE. 2.00. III. PARFOIS ON TROUVE UN VIEUX FLACON QUI SE

    SOUVIENT, D'ou JAILLIT TOUTE VIVE UNE AME QUI REVIENT.

    2.01. IV. Sl PAR UNE NUIT LOURDE ET SOMBRE, UN BON CHRETIEN, PAR CHARITJ'> , DERRIERE QUELQUE VIEUX DECOMBRE, ENTERRE VOTRE CORPS VOtlTE.

  • CATALOGUE 47

    2.02.. v. VOLUPTE. FANTOME ELASTIQUE! 2.03 . VI. SUR LE FOND DE NOS NUITS DIEU DE SON DOIGT

    SAVANT DESSINE UN CAUCHEMAR MULTIFORME ET

    SANS TREVE.

    2.04. VII . SANS CESSE A MES COTEs s 'AGITE LE DEMON . 2.05 . VIII. GLOIRE ET LOUANGE A TOI, SATAN, DANS LES

    HAUTEURS DU CIEL OU TU REGNAS, ET DANS LES

    PROFONDEURS DE L'ENFER OU, VAINCU, TU REVES

    E N SILENCE!

    2.06. IX . CUL-DE-LAMPE

    w6bis.-Le portrait de Redan par lui-meme. (Evely's process). Mentioned in note on page 102., Mel-lerio.

    AIC1929Redon_covAIC1929Redon_003AIC1929Redon_004AIC1929Redon_005AIC1929Redon_006AIC1929Redon_007AIC1929Redon_008AIC1929Redon_009AIC1929Redon_010AIC1929Redon_011AIC1929Redon_012AIC1929Redon_013AIC1929Redon_014AIC1929Redon_015AIC1929Redon_016AIC1929Redon_017AIC1929Redon_019AIC1929Redon_020AIC1929Redon_021AIC1929Redon_022AIC1929Redon_023AIC1929Redon_024AIC1929Redon_025AIC1929Redon_026AIC1929Redon_027AIC1929Redon_028AIC1929Redon_029AIC1929Redon_030AIC1929Redon_031AIC1929Redon_032AIC1929Redon_033AIC1929Redon_034AIC1929Redon_035AIC1929Redon_036AIC1929Redon_037AIC1929Redon_038AIC1929Redon_039AIC1929Redon_040AIC1929Redon_041AIC1929Redon_042AIC1929Redon_043AIC1929Redon_044AIC1929Redon_045AIC1929Redon_046AIC1929Redon_047