Vase of Flowers (Pink Background)

Odilon Redon

ca. 1906 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Having worked almost exclusively in black and white for more than two decades, Redon revealed his gifts as a colorist in the luminous pastels and paintings he made after 1895. In this bouquet, such identifiable flowers as poppies and cornflowers, which he had studied attentively, emerge as fanciful re-creations, in jewel-like patches of color against a misty, undefined field. Late flower pictures such as this one remain true to Redon’s artistic aim: "to place the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible."

Artist

Odilon Redon

Date

ca. 1906

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Mabel Choate, in memory of her father, Joseph Hodges Choate, 1958