Odilon Redon
French, 1840 - 1916Apollo’s Chariot, 1905-1910
Not on view
Pastel on paper
Dimensions13 7/8 × 11 in. (35.2 × 27.9 cm)
Framed: 22 1/2 × 19 1/4 × 2 in. (57.2 × 48.9 × 5.1 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William L. Richards through the Viola E. Bray Charitable Trust Fund, 1963.4
Odilon Redon is an enigmatic figure in the history of Post-Impressionism as his work balances between the naturalistic and the fantastic. While he was contemporary with the Impressionists and was influenced by Camille Corot, Redon’s art contradicted the premises of realism and tended toward the mysterious and undefined. Apollo’s Chariot is a good example of Redon’s ability to bring together mythological fantasy and direct observations in order to form a personal vision. This tendency to depart from reality and to emphasize mood and emotion is Redon’s alternative approach. In an article of May, 1909, titled Confidences d’artiste, he wrote: “My drawings inspire yet cannot be defined. They do not determine anything, like music they transport us into the ambiguous world of the undetermined.” This romantic sensibility allied him with such groups as the Symbolists.
