I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24
1896
Medium
Lithograph in black and green from same stone on ivory China paper laid down on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 26.6 × 18.2 cm (10 1/2 × 7 3/16 in.); Chine: 26.6 × 18.4 cm (10 1/2 × 7 1/4 in.); Sheet: 45.2 × 35.2 cm (17 13/16 × 13 7/8 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
106655
Art Historical Context
Odilon Redon's *I Have Sometimes Seen in Sky What Seemed Like Forms of Spirits*, plate 21 from a series of 24 lithographs created in 1896, the French Symbolist's fascination with the ethereal and the subconscious. Redon, a pioneer of Symbolism, moved beyond the stark "Noirs" of his earlier charcoal drawings into colored prints that evoked dreamlike visions and mystical apparitions. This work, evoking spectral forms drifting in the heavens, reflects the fin-de-siècle preoccupation with spirituality, the occult, and the unseen realms, influenced by Romanticism and emerging psychological theories...
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...