Odilon Redon

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French artist, painter, etcher and lithographer who created "In the Dream," 1879 and "Night," 1886, using dramatic contrasts of black and white to express his emotions and dreams. Redon produced nearly 200 prints and is considered one of the outstanding proponents of Symbolism. Born Bertrand-Jean Redon, he was the second son of Bertrand Redon and his wife Marie Guerin. He had a brother, Léo, and a sister, Marie, and he grew up at the family estate of Peyrelebade, near Listrac under the care of his uncle. He attended school in Bordeaux, and in 1855, he studied drawing with Stanislas Gorin. He took architecture classes in 1857 at the request of his father but failed the examinations. In 1862, he created "Roland à Roncevaux," one of his first paintings, and one year later, with the help of a new friend, Rodolphe Bresdin, he began exploring the mediums of etching and lithography. He relocated to Paris in 1870 and began working in charcoal. In 1878, he made his first voyage to Belgium and Holland where he was exposed to the art of Rembrandt. After undergoing a "religious crisis" in the early 1890s, he began working with oils and pastels, creating paintings like "Orpheus," 1903 and "Vase of Flowers," 1914. He married Camille Falte, a young Creole woman from Bourbon Island, on 5/01/1880. Their first son, Jean, was born on 5/11/1886 but died just six months later on 11/27/1886. Their son, Arï, was born on 4/30/1889. Redon was an intensely private person, and after his marriage, he let his wife handle all interactions with the press and art dealers. Redon had a serious illness in 1894-95. He died on 7/06/1916 in Paris, leaving his last work, "The Virgin," unfinished. Link to Wikipedia biography