Artwork Page for The Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series)

Details / Information for The Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series)

The Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series)

1888

Odilon Redon

(French, 1840–1916)
printer

Becquet

(French)
publisher

Edmond Deman

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Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
ten lithographs
Measurements
Image: 19.8 x 14 cm (7 13/16 x 5 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1927.477
Catalogue raisonné
Mellerio 83-93
State
I/I
Edition
edition of 60 (58 printed)
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print
?

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.
Eleven vertically oriented black ink lithographs on cream paper are arranged in a grid. Dense hatching and heavy shadows create high contrast. Surreal subjects include a large eye floating above a crag, a profile of a winged figure, and a head centered in a radiant circle. Figures with light skin tones emerge from blackened backgrounds, their forms bathed in harsh light. Grainy textures and smudged strokes create a dreamlike, symbolic atmosphere across the series.

The Temptation of Saint Anthony (First Series)

1888

Odilon Redon, Becquet, Edmond Deman

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

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