French Symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and pastellist Bertrand-Jean Redon or Odilon Redon (April 20, 1840 – July 06, 1916) was an eminent frontrunner of ‘Post-Impressionism’ and ‘Symbolism.’ He was only 10 when he received a drawing prize at school. Odilon started finding out drawing formally at 15, but experienced to swap to architecture on his father’s insistence. He was back again to painting, at the time he unsuccessful to pass the entrance for architecture, at École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The creator of the “Portrait of Violette Heymann,” Redon, studied etching and lithography below Rodolphe Bresdin, right until his creative occupation yet again experienced to consider a break when he joined military in the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870.
The calendar year 1878 received Odilon recognition, with his creations the ‘Guardian Spirit of the Waters’ and his very first album of lithographs, ‘Dans le Rêve’ in 1879. In 1890s, he commenced employing pastels and oils, which was intensely viewed in his functions for the relaxation of his everyday living. He added a pair of etchings and lithographs catalogs to his depend, later on in existence. Odilon’s operates were massively imaginative, which ranged suitable from a human headed spider to quaking ground. His well-known works incorporated ‘Spirit of the Forest’ (1880), ‘Cactus Man’ (1881), ‘The Crying Spider’ (1881), ‘The Buddha’ (1904), and the “Portrait of Violette Heymann.”
The “Portrait of Violette Heymann,” developed during the very last many years of Redon’s lifestyle in 1910, was 1 an immensely imaginative work. Measuring 72 cm x 92 cm, this pastel work displays a younger female, Violette Heymann, surrounded by many, intensely colored, blooming, and rather unfinished bouquets close to. To match up with the topic ‘Violette,’ Odilon has built an ample use of violet color. Violette is demonstrated sideways, sitting on a chair, which is supporting just her again, whilst her neck and head remain unsupported. She appears to be like passive, owing to her expressionless flat deal with. Her dress is also fairly easy without having a great deal elaboration and model. She is a putting on a white colored, significant neck interior, with a greenish-blue higher getting golden border. Her black hair is shoulder duration and is pinned at her back again.
Odilon Redon explained his is effective as ambiguous and indefinable. He describes, “I have usually, as an work out and as sustenance, painted prior to an item down to the smallest incidents of its visual visual appeal but the working day still left me sad and with an insatiate thirst. The upcoming working day I permit the other supply operate, that of creativeness, by means of the recollection of the varieties and I was then reassured and appeased.” Reflecting his have wondering and psyche by means of his function, Redon tried using to “location the noticeable at the services of the invisible.” The same ambiguity is reflected in Violette’s expression, owing to which Odilon’s this artwork often collected mixed reactions. The “Portrait of Violette Heymann” is presently displayed at the Museum of Art at Cleveland, Ohio.