Child's Head With Flowers

Art Historical Context

Odilon Redon's *Child's Head With Flowers (1897) captures a tender, dreamlike portrait of innocence framed by blooming blossoms, rendered in a delicate lithograph in black on green wove paper. Measuring 29.2 × 24.7 cm, this intimate image exemplifies Redon's mastery of Symbolism, a late-19th-century movement that prioritized emotion, mystery, and the subconscious over realistic depiction. As a French artist (1840–1916), Redon was renowned for his "No"—monochromatic works like this one—that evoke ethereal realms through subtle shading and suggestion, bridging Romanticism and emerging modernism. Lithography suited Redon's poetic style perfectly, allowing greasy crayon marks on stone to produce soft, velvety tones and intricate details, enhanced here by the green paper's subtle hue that infuses the composition with an otherworldly glow. Printed during the height of Paris's avant-garde scene, amid influences like Japonisme and spiritualism, the work reflects Redon's fascination with childhood purity and nature's symbolism—flowers often representing fleeting beauty or the soul in his oeuvre. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, this piece invites visitors to ponder the interplay of light and shadow, inviting a meditative pause in our bustling world. Redon's prints, affordable yet profound, democratized visionary art for a wider audience.

About the Artist

Odilon Redon · 1840–1916

Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was a French Symbolist painter, printmaker, and pastellist whose visionary art bridged the 19th-century Symbolist movement and 20th-century Surrealism. Born Bertrand Redon in Bordeaux on April 20, 1840, he earned the nickname "Odilon" from his mother Odile. His father, who made his fortune in the Louisiana slave trade, conceived Odilon in New Orleans before the family retu...