I first came across Odilon Redon and Edgar Allen Poe as in 1986 at school when I was a teenager my art class took an excursion from Sydney to Canberra to visit the National Gallery and it was to see the Twentieth Century Masters show from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Chagall’s really spoke to me but it was in the gallery book shop that I discovered a Odilon Redon book called Nature and Imagination. I still have the book but have lost the cover.
“The Twentieth Century Masters: Toured 7 May – 1 July 1986
“The exhibition was made up of 38 paintings, 30 drawings and 3 sculptures. Apart from the modern European Masters – Picasso Bonnard, Matisse, Derain, Klee, De Chirico, Beckmann and Modigliani – twentieth-century modernists art in America is documented in 10 paintings from the great early modernists– John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley to Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.”
Australian National Gallery Website
Our art teacher Dave Ross drove us to Canberra in the school mini bus and today I feel sorry for him as our art class was so rowdy on the way there and back. He had Multiple Sclerosis (MS) so sometimes I think he struggled as a teacher but he was a great artist and fun art teacher.
In the book I discovered that Rodin had illustrated books of Edgar Allen Poe in poetry and short stories.
I am still not sure if I like the colour works or black and white ones best but they seem to be a precursor to the surrealist movement of capturing the imaginings of the dark corners of the mind and depicting and illustrating dreams.
Poe was known as a gothic artist and Redon a symbolist artist.
“Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
Edgar Allan Poe
I love this quote of beauty exciting the soul and I feel this when I see great art or wonder at the supreme beauty of nature.
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
Edgar Allan Poe
I am not sure if I agree with this Poe quote as I think there is a clear distinction between lucid day conscious and sleep dreaming yet the sleep dreaming helps me cope with processing trauma in my life.
“While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality… true art lies in a reality that is felt.”
Odilon Redon
I love this quote by Redon and like Bjork I feel that the best creativity doesn’t come out of observed reality but how a situation makes one feel.
“My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible.”
Odilon Redon
This quote by Redon speaks to me as I think it speaks of putting the logic of the visible in the service of the invisible or rational thinking in balance with intuitive thinking and creativity.
“Odilon Redon (1840–1916) was deeply influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, creating a famed 1882 lithograph portfolio titled À Edgar Poë that brought the American author’s macabre, psychological, and dreamlike tales into visual, Symbolist art. Redon used a monochromatic “noir” style to interpret Poe’s themes of terror, the subconscious, and the surreal. “
“Edgar Allan Poe (né Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States and of early American literature. Poe was one of the country’s first successful practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered to be one of the pioneers of the detective fiction genre. In addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living exclusively through writing, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career.”
Wiki
Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; French: [ɔdilɔ̃ʁədɔ̃]; 20 April 1840 – 6 July 1916) was a French Symbolist draftsman, printmaker, and painter. Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon worked almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography, works known as his noirs. He gained recognition after his drawings were mentioned in the 1884 novel À rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. During the 1890s, Redon began working in pastel and oil, which quickly became his favorite medium, abandoning his previous style of noirs completely after 1900. He developed a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture, which increasingly showed in his work. Redon is perhaps best known today for the dreamlike paintings created in the first decade of the 20th century, which were inspired by Japanese art and leaned toward abstraction. His work is considered a precursor to Surrealism.
“The À Edgar Poë Portfolio (1882): was by Redon. This suite of six lithographs was not direct illustration but rather a visual homage to the mood of Poe’s stories, particularly as translated by French poets Baudelaire and Mallarmé.”
“Thematic Parallels: Both creators were obsessed with the deeper, darker corners of the human psyche, shifting away from realism toward, as RISD Museum notes, the “imaginary”.
“Key Imagery: Redon’s works for this series feature iconic, surreal images, such as a detached eye acting as a balloon (influenced by Poe’s “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall”) and a mask tolling a bell (referencing “The Bells”).”
“Redon’s engagement with Poe was central to his artistic development, helping to establish his reputation as a “prince of dreams” and cementing the connection between 19th-century literature and Symbolist visual art.”
I like the idea of symbolism and in my own drawings often black ink and brush on paper I use symbolism.
Rodin’s work was deeply influenced by Gustav Moreau in the depiction of characters and symbolism.
In conclusion it’s on my bucket list to read a lot of Poe’s writing and just by looking at Redons black and white drawings that I am getting great inspiration for my own art. In retrospect I feel that it is Redons black and white images that speak to me most as they are in incredibly simple but also complex and have great emotion in them and trigger feelings of awe, anxiety and trauma.