Sometimes One Finds an Old Reminiscing Flask, Whence Issues in Full Life a Returning Soul, plate 3 of 9
1890
Medium
Photogravure made from an original drawing, in black on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Plate: 27.8 × 19.8 cm (11 × 7 13/16 in.); Sheet: 44.8 × 31.2 cm (17 11/16 × 12 5/16 in.)
Classification
photogravure
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
79803
Art Historical Context
Odilon Redon, a pioneering French Symbolist artist, created *Sometimes One Finds an Oldiniscing Flask, Wh Issues in Full Life a Soul* in 1890 as plate 3 of a series of 9. This evocative work belongs to Redon's "Noirs" period, where he masterfully explored dreamlike visions, mysticism, and the subconscious through monochromatic drawings. The poetic title hints at themes of memory, resurrection, and the ethereal boundary between life and spirit—core to Symbolism's rejection of realism in favor of suggestive, otherworldly imagery that stirs the imagination. Rendered as a photogravure from an ori...
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...