I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24
1896
Medium
Lithograph in black on light gray loose chine
Dimensions
Image: 27 × 20.5 cm (10 11/16 × 8 1/8 in.); Sheet: 37.3 × 27.4 cm (14 11/16 × 10 13/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
106658
Art Historical Context
Odilon Redon's *I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed Like of Spirits*, plate 21 from a series of 24 lithographs created in 1896, viewers into the ethereal world of Symbolism. Redon, a pioneering French artist (1840–1916), was renowned for his dreamlike visions that blurred the line between reality and the subconscious, often exploring mysticism and the unseen. This haunting image, printed in black ink on delicate light gray loose chine (a thin Chinese paper collé to a support sheet), exemplifies his mastery of lithography during the fin-de-siècle era, when printmaking allowed innovativ...
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...