Artwork Page for Hideous Larvae

Details / Information for Hideous Larvae

Series Title: The Haunted House

Hideous Larvae

1896
printer

Auguste Clot

(French, 1858–1936)

Odilon Redon

(French, 1840–1916)
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Culture
France, late 19th Century
Medium
lithograph on China paper laid on wove paper
Support
China paper; wove paper
Measurements
Image: 17.9 x 17 cm (7 1/16 x 6 11/16 in.); Sheet: 44.9 x 31.5 cm (17 11/16 x 12 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1966.413.6
Catalogue raisonné
Mellerio 165
State
I/I
Edition
edition of 60
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

One of Redon's greatest patrons, the occultist René Philipon, commissioned this portfolio as a supplement for his French translation of Bulwer-Lytton's The Haunted and the Haunters.

Description

Odilon Redon was a voracious reader of contemporary literature, and such texts often influenced his art. This series was inspired by The Haunted and the Haunters, an 1859 novel by British writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Redon’s prints capture the book’s mysterious tone and emphasis on the supernatural through vague but evocative imagery that sometimes borders on abstraction. By this time a seasoned expert in lithography, the artist collaborated with master printer Auguste Clot. Their combined technical skills allowed for the rich tonal variation seen here, made by turning Redon’s lithographic crayon on its side, layering various marks, and even scratching directly into the surface of his stone.
A square-oriented, dark-inked lithograph features a diagonal composition slanting from our top left. Two rounded, face-like forms emerge from a dense, grainy black mass. On our left, a face with wide-set eyes and a bulbous nose gazes outward. To its right, a smaller face sits beneath a bright white orb. Fine, stippled dots scatter across the shadows, while a segmented point extends into a bright, white expanse below.

Hideous Larvae

1896

Auguste Clot, Odilon Redon

(French, 1858–1936), (French, 1840–1916)
France, late 19th Century

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