Artwork Page for And In the Very Disk of the Sun Shines the Face of Jesus Christ

Details / Information for And In the Very Disk of the Sun Shines the Face of Jesus Christ

Series Title: The Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series)

And In the Very Disk of the Sun Shines the Face of Jesus Christ

1888
(French, 1840–1916)
printer
(French)
publisher
Support
China paper; wove paper
Measurements
Image: 28.2 x 23 cm (11 1/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
Catalogue raisonné
Mellerio 93
State
I/I
Edition
edition of 60 (58 printed)
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

Publisher Edmond Deman commissioned this portfolio after he saw an 1886 exhibition of Redon's work in Brussels, Belgium.

Description

This portfolio is one of three made by Odilon Redon inspired by avant-garde writer Gustave Flaubert’s novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874). Captivated by the book’s fantastical account of moralizing tests encountered by a hermit in the desert, Redon executed charcoal drawings and attempted to evoke that medium’s dense blackness in his lithographs. Based on the text’s darkly imaginative tone rather than its actual content, the works in this series present invented monsters and figures in otherworldly settings with jarring tonal variations. Although Redon felt that the prints effectively translated the surreal universe of his source material, they were largely misunderstood in his own time.
A vertically oriented lithograph in black ink depicts the face of Jesus Christ centered within a luminous circular disk. He has long wavy hair and a beard, gazing forward with deep-set eyes. Fine, scratchy lines radiate from the disk, creating a textured sun-like halo. This bright form is encased in a dense, ragged field of deep black ink. The name "ODILON REDON" is printed at the bottom center.

And In the Very Disk of the Sun Shines the Face of Jesus Christ

1888

Odilon Redon, Becquet, Edmond Deman

(French, 1840–1916), (French)
France, 19th century

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