And a Large Bird, Descending from the Sky, Hurls Itself against the Topmost Point of Her Hair - Odilon Redon
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Description
A haunting lithograph by Symbolist artist Odilon Redon, depicting a dreamlike encounter between a woman and a descending bird.
This lithograph is the third plate from the 1889 portfolio 'Songes' (Dreams). Odilon Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, focused his practice on the exploration of the subconscious and the dream state. He moved away from the objective observation of the physical world, preferring to render internal visions through a mastery of charcoal and lithographic ink.
The composition features a stark, monochromatic contrast. A female figure, rendered with a calm, almost vacant expression, occupies the right side of the frame. Beside her, a dark, avian form descends from the upper left. The bird is not a literal creature but a manifestation of psychological tension or mythic narrative. Redon uses the texture of the lithographic stone to create a soft, atmospheric grain, which allows the shadows to feel heavy and the light to appear ethereal. The bird's form is partially dissolved into the surrounding darkness, suggesting a transition between reality and hallucination.
Redon's work often drew inspiration from literature, particularly the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Gustave Flaubert. This print captures the uncanny quality typical of his 'noirs' series, where the absence of colour forces the viewer to focus on the weight of the forms and the ambiguity of the subject matter. The title, which is as descriptive as it is poetic, provides a narrative anchor for an otherwise enigmatic scene. By stripping away background detail, Redon ensures the interaction between the woman and the bird remains the sole focus. This print demonstrates his ability to evoke a sense of mystery through simple, yet highly controlled, tonal gradations.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
And a Large Bird, Descending from the Sky, Hurls Itself against the Topmost Point of Her Hair - Odilon Redon
Artist Biography
Odilon Redon
For the first two decades of his career he worked exclusively in black: charcoal drawings and lithographs he called his noirs. Floating eyeballs, severed heads with closed lids, spiders with human faces, plants that grow teeth. The images are hallucinatory but precisely rendered, closer to medical illustration than fantasy. He published his first lithograph album, Dans le Reve, in 1879. Nobody noticed.
Recognition came sideways. In 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans published A rebours, a novel about a reclusive aesthete who decorates his rooms with Redon's prints. The book became a cult text for the Symbolist movement and Redon became famous by association. Stephane Mallarme, the Symbolist poet, became a close friend. Redon also completed a series of lithographs dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, whose poems Mallarme and Baudelaire had translated into French.
After 1900 he stopped making noirs entirely and shifted to colour: pastels and oils of flowers, mythological figures and butterflies in palettes that anticipate Matisse. The transition was so complete that the Surrealists later claimed the black work while the Fauves claimed the colour, and neither group seemed to notice they were talking about the same person.
He studied under Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which is an unlikely pairing: Gerome painted Roman gladiators with photographic precision. Redon painted eyeballs attached to balloons. Goya and Delacroix were the influences that actually stuck.
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