Closed Eyes

Art Historical Context

Odilon Redon's *Closed Eyes* (189) invites visitors into the ethereal realm of Symbolism, a movement that prized imagination and the subconscious over the visible world. Redon, a French artist renowned for his visionary "Noirs" series of brooding, monochromatic prints, here employs a delicate lithograph in soft green tones on ivory wove paper. Created during a pivotal shift in his career toward color, this work captures a serene, closed-eyed figure—evoking introspection, dreams, and the mysteries of the inner mind. At 21.8 × 18.3 cm, its intimate scale draws the viewer close, mirroring the private reverie it depicts. Lithography, Redon's favored medium for its fluid, painterly effects, allowed him to translate charcoal-like subtleties onto stone, inking and printing with precision. The unusual green monochrome infuses the composition with an otherworldly glow, heightening its poetic ambiguity and emotional depth. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, this piece exemplifies fin-de-siècle innovation, bridging Romanticism's fantasy with modern psychology's fascination with the unseen. A testament to Redon's influence on Surrealism, *Closed Eyes* reminds us that true vision often lies beyond sight. Pause here to ponder what dreams those lids conceal.

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...