Oannès (Plate 14) - Odilon Redon
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Description
A haunting lithograph by Odilon Redon from his 1896 portfolio, depicting the mythological figure Oannès emerging from the abyss.
This lithograph is plate 14 from the portfolio 'La Tentation de Saint Antoine', published in 1896. Odilon Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, explored the internal world of dreams and the subconscious through his 'noirs', a series of charcoal drawings and lithographs defined by their deep, velvety blacks.
In this work, Redon depicts Oannès, a mythological figure of Babylonian origin. The composition emerges from a void of darkness, where the figure appears as a hybrid entity, part human and part aquatic creature. The face is rendered with a serene, closed-eyed expression, suggesting a state of meditation or detachment from the physical realm. The body coils into a circular form, merging with the surrounding shadows. Redon uses the lithographic medium to create a range of textures, from the dense, light-absorbing black background to the softer, grey tones that define the figure's features.
Redon's approach to this subject reflects his interest in the mysterious and the irrational. Rather than providing a literal illustration of the text, he creates an atmospheric response to the concept of primordial consciousness. The figure of Oannès, as described in the accompanying caption, represents the emergence of order from chaos. The work invites the viewer to contemplate the origins of form and the nature of existence. By focusing on the interplay between light and shadow, Redon achieves a sense of depth that feels psychological rather than spatial. This print is a characteristic example of his ability to evoke the uncanny through technical mastery of lithography.
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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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- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
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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
Oannès (Plate 14) - 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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