Odilon Redon ,
Ojos cerrados, 1890, óleo sobre tela, 44 x 36 cm. Museo de Orsay, París
The eyes closed
in sleep or death suggest an inner world, dream, absence or apparition, all
fertile themes in the work of Odilon Redon, as he explains in A soi-même, his
diary published in 1922. The highly diluted paint makes it almost immaterial,
letting the grain of the canvas show through. The bust seems to float in an
undefined space.
The face refers
to busts from the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century, especially to the
marble statues by Francesco Laurana. It is also reminiscent of Michelangelo's
Dying Slave exhibited at the Louvre, which had deeply affected Redon; he spoke
in his diary of the strange charm of the "closed eyes".
An icon of
Symbolism in painting, this was the first of Redon's works to enter the
national collections; it was chosen by Léonce Bénédite, the director of the
Musée du Luxembourg, in the artist's studio in 1904.
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