Flowers Fall and the Head of a Python Appears - Odilon Redon
Archival giclée
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Description
A haunting lithograph by Odilon Redon, featuring an emerging python amidst falling flowers, rendered in his signature atmospheric, monochromatic style.
Odilon Redon, a French artist associated with the Symbolist movement, produced this lithograph as part of his exploration into the subconscious and the dreamlike state. The work, titled Flowers Fall and the Head of a Python Appears, demonstrates his mastery of the lithographic medium, specifically his ability to manipulate light and shadow to create an atmosphere of mystery. Redon often referred to his black-and-white works as his noirs, a term that captures the depth and texture he achieved through charcoal and lithographic crayon.
In this composition, the viewer encounters a dark, ambiguous space where organic forms emerge from the gloom. The title provides a narrative anchor for an otherwise abstract and unsettling scene. The python, rendered with subtle gradations of tone, rises from the bottom of the frame, while the falling flowers are suggested through delicate, ghostly marks. Redon avoids clear lines, preferring instead to build form through soft, atmospheric shading. This technique allows the subject matter to hover between reality and hallucination, a hallmark of his artistic practice.
Redon was influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and the scientific observations of Charles Darwin, both of which informed his interest in the strange and the unseen. By stripping away colour, he forced the viewer to focus on the texture of the paper and the density of the ink. The result is a work that feels both ancient and modern, inviting personal interpretation rather than offering a fixed meaning. This print is a fine example of his ability to evoke psychological states through minimal visual information, relying on the interplay of light against a void to suggest the presence of the uncanny.
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Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. See our refunds page for full details.
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Manufacturing
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.
Care and materials
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
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
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
Flowers Fall and the Head of a Python Appears - 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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