First a Pool of Water, Then a Prostitute, the Corner of a Temple, a Soldier's Face, a Chariot with Two White, Rearing Horses - Odilon Redon
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Description
A haunting lithograph from Odilon Redon's 1896 series, 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony', featuring ethereal figures emerging from deep, velvety shadows.
This lithograph is the first plate from the series 'La Tentation de Saint Antoine' (The Temptation of Saint Anthony), published in 1896. Odilon Redon, a French artist associated with the Symbolist movement, produced several series based on the writings of Gustave Flaubert. This specific work demonstrates his mastery of lithographic technique, where he manipulates light and shadow to create an atmosphere of dreamlike ambiguity.
The composition is dominated by deep, velvety blacks, a hallmark of Redon's 'noirs' period. Within this darkness, spectral forms emerge. The title itself acts as a narrative guide, listing disparate elements that appear to float within a void. A figure, often interpreted as the prostitute, gazes downward, while the rearing horses and the architectural fragment of the temple appear as phantasmagorical apparitions. Redon avoids clear spatial logic, preferring to evoke a psychological state rather than a physical reality.
His use of lithography allows for a range of textures, from the dense, opaque blacks of the background to the delicate, scratchy lines that define the figures. The light appears to emanate from within the image, casting an ethereal glow on the subjects. This print reflects the artist's interest in the subconscious and the irrational, themes that occupied much of his career. By stripping away the context of the physical world, Redon forces the viewer to engage with the image as a series of visual metaphors. The work is a fine example of how printmaking can be used to explore the boundaries between the seen and the imagined, providing a glimpse into the internal world of the artist.
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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
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- 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
First a Pool of Water, Then a Prostitute, the Corner of a Temple, a Soldier's Face, a Chariot with Two White, Rearing Horses - 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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