Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier) - Odilon Redon
Archival giclée
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Description
A delicate pastel portrait by Odilon Redon, capturing Marie Escudier in a moment of quiet contemplation amidst a floral backdrop.
Odilon Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, produced this portrait of Marie Escudier, the wife of the art patron Arthur Fontaine, in 1901. The work demonstrates his mastery of pastel, a medium he favoured for its soft, atmospheric qualities. Redon moves away from the stark, monochromatic lithographs of his earlier career, embracing a palette that balances muted, earthy tones with sudden bursts of colour.
The composition depicts Madame Fontaine in profile, her attention directed toward her needlework. Her posture is quiet and contemplative, a hallmark of Redon's approach to portraiture. The figure is framed by a dense, almost dreamlike arrangement of blue flowers, which appear to dissolve into the background. This treatment of the environment creates a sense of interiority, where the subject exists within a private, meditative space. The yellow of her dress provides a warm contrast to the cooler blues and greens surrounding her, while the delicate lace of her shawl is rendered with light, feathery strokes of pastel.
Redon often sought to evoke internal states rather than objective reality. In this portrait, the focus remains on the mood of the sitter and the texture of the materials. The soft edges and blurred transitions between the figure and the background suggest a world perceived through memory or imagination. By avoiding sharp lines, Redon allows the viewer to focus on the interplay of light and colour across the surface of the paper. This piece remains a fine example of his ability to imbue a domestic scene with a sense of mystery, moving beyond mere representation to capture a fleeting, ethereal moment in time.
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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
Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier) - 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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