Odilon Redon Exhibition — La Tentation de Saint Antoine
(Web exhibition / By appointment only)

Dec. 11 [Fri.] ― Dec. 26 [Sat.] 2020 11:00-19:00
Gallery closed on Sunday, Monday, and national holidays.
*For an appointment, please e-mail or call us before your visit.

To view web exhibition movie, please click the play icon on the center of movie below.


Movie production: Web Magazine Colla:J SHIONO Tetsuya

*Click images to view in original size.

 

Gustave Flaubert's novel "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" was published in 1874, nearly 30 years after its inspiration. The picture-scroll-like story is about a fantastic experience of Saint Anthony of the 3rd century AD, at the hermitage on the mountaintop of Thebe. Over the night, the saint experiences the illusions of various religious and mythical gods and demons, have a glimpse on the origin of life, and in the end, finds the face of Jesus Christ in the rising Sun. Odilon Redon made 42 lithographs (including a cover image) based on "The Temptation of Saint Anthony". By expressing hallucinating, devilish atmosphere with monotone black, the color artist described as "the most essential color of all colors", the series are known as Redon's representative works.

The first series (60 editions, 11 prints) were published in 1888, followed by the second series (60 editions, 7 prints) in 1889. The third series has 2 editions. The first edition published in 1896 (50 editions, 24 prints) and the latter edition released in 1933 (220 editions, 22 prints).

Works in this exhibition are 22 prints from the latter edition of "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" Third series.



■Odilon REDON (b. 1840-1916)
French symbolist painter. Born in Bordeaux in 1840. At 15, while studying painting under Stanislas Gorin, he became inspired by the works of Eugene Delacroix. Through Arman Clavaud, who was still a botanist at the time, Redon was introduced to literature by Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Baudelaire. Studied painting under Jean Leon Gerome for a time, but had trouble adapting to neoclassicism and returned to Bordeaux. Afterwards, he learned from Rodolphe Bresdin, a traveling engraver who was staying in Bordeaux. Bresdin's romanticist works had an influence on Redon which would continue to appear throughout his life.

After the Franco-Prussian War, moved to Paris with the intention of becoming a draughtsman. When deciding the best way to make his charcoal drawings known, he learned lithography at the salon he frequented, and used this method to create his first print series, "Dans le Rêve" (1879). Following that, he created "A Edgar Poe" (1882), based on Poe's short stories, and "Les Origines" (1883), his own interpretation of Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Throughout these works, he used the motif of an eyeball, a tool that looks over the world. From 1888 to 1896, he worked on "La Tentation de Saint-Antoine 1-3", the series based on works by Gustave Flaubert that would come to represent Redon. These fantastic, dreamlike works are done in a monochrome black, which he called "the most essential of all colors".The third set of this series was republished posthumously in 1933, leaving it with two editions.



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