Odilon Redon

(Bordeaux 1840 - 1916 Paris)

Redon is taught by the graphic artist Rodolphe Bresdin in 1864, then by Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1870, he strikes up a friendship with Henri Fantin-Latour, who teaches him how to make lithographs. In 1878, he travels to Belgium and the Netherlands, where he admires the works of Rembrandt. He produces numerous lithographic series; his début in the format, Dans le rêve, is published in 1879. A cofounder and the first president of the Salon des Indépendants in 1884, he also makes friends with the poet Stéphane Mallarmé and is in contact with the Belgian symbolists. Redon’s encounter with Paul Gauguin and the “Nabis” in 1889 inspires a shift toward painting in pastels and oils as the suitable media for his mythologically inspired dreamlike visions.