A dreamy, mystical realm
The illuminated spirit of Odilon Redon
Every time I see a painting by Odilon Redon, I’m immediately transported into a dreamy and mystical realm.
It’s Monday morning, and chances are you’re in the realm of the stressful and the everyday.
But if you’d like to be carried off to a more mysterious, illuminated place — a “Thin Place,” of the kind I wrote about here — try spending time with Redon’s work.
Odilon Redon was a French Symbolist painter who often embraced mythical, religious, and spiritual themes, and whose aesthetic, as Britannica puts it, “was one of imagination rather than visual perception.” He was neither Impressionist nor Realist; his paintings drew from reality, but offered dreams and evocations.
One of many things I resonate with, in Redon’s work, is his love affair with all the world’s wisdom traditions—and his belief that “true art lies in a reality that is felt.”
Here he is, with you, today.
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This one is called Andromeda (who was sacrificed to Poseidon and chained to a rock by the sea — but later was saved by Perseus, and ascended to the sky as an eternal constellation). I appreciate the way this painting simultaneously depicts Andromeda’s earthly suffering AND her heavenly destiny:
And here is Pandora, with her box of afflictions:
Here is one of Redon’s depictions of the “final journey” - “The Yellow Sail, Guardians of the Soul” (the very title, the very language - guardians of the soul - might remind you of the possibility that not only are you a soul, but also that there exist mythical guardians to guide you in your travels). Which is not to say that this is the case; but what about the fact that we humans have conceived that this could be the case? Even our ability to conceive of such things, it seems to me, is worthy of great attention - especially compared to the things we normally pay attention to.
Like many people of his orientation, Redon often depicted water. Of this painting, “Underwater Vision,” he wrote: “You will feel the poetry of the sands, the charms of the air of the imperceptible line. While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality… true art lies in a reality that is felt.”
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*What do you think of Redon’s colors, his images, his spirit?
*Do you enjoy posts like these, featuring the work and sensibility of a single artist?
*I’d also like to know if you’re interested in more explorations, like this one, of the mystical-intellectual domain.
*Nb: I found these particular Redon paintings via a beautiful blog by Deborah Brasket, but there are so, so many gorgeous ones out there.
As I start my morning with stark reality looking at me, your post Susan has brought me into the beauty of imagination and creativity. I love this sharing and lesson for me about this artist. The blues and golds draw me in and the softness of each is breathtaking.
Yes, I embrace more. Thank you so much for a shedding light on my morning. ✨
Not just art, but the inward ethereal source of creativity. Light caught by a spirit. I tried to write about it one time. Didn’t keep it, it was enough to express it. But I came to a meadow clearing in the mountains, and there in the center was this being, this spirit. She had the freedom of her solitude and danced and swayed with her palms and face held upward, she was a light catcher. I laid down in the grass in quiet stillness to watch, and as she moved, eyes closed, with face and hands held upward, all around her, things began to grow. Light flowed through her, and emanated beauty. And it was so beautiful that I thought how wonderful it would be to have her, maybe a lasso? But the very thought was too harsh, she was a spirit of the meadow, of her own solitude, a conduit of light’s beauty. With the first movement to have her, somehow I knew, she wouldn’t just run away, she would vanish into thin air. So I felt, it is enough to lay quietly and watch her dance of light and beauty. This is for me, in the realm of my feelings what I think of creativity.