Odilon Redon. 1840-1916.
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Et un autre ange sortit du temple qui est au ciel, ayant lui aussi une faucille tranchante. (And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, having also a sharp sickle). 1899. Lithograph. Mellerio 180. 12 1/4 x 8 3/8 (sheet 19 1/2 x 11 3/4). Series: Apocalypse de Saint-Jean, plate 7. Published by Vollard in 1899 in an edition of 100. A rich, tonal impression printed on Chine appliqué mounted on sturdy wove paper. Fine condition apart from a 1 1/4-inch printer's crease at the lower right-hand sheet edge. Initialed in pencil. $2,000.
Mes baisers ont le gout d'un fruit qui se fondrait dans ton cœur! ... Tu me dédaignes! Adieu! (My kisses have the taste of fruit which would melt in your heart! ... You disdain me! Farewell!) 1896. Lithograph. Mellerio 137.7 3/4 x 6 1/4 (sheet 17 x 13). La Tentation de Saint-Antoine Troisième série. Text by Gustave Flaubert. 24 lithographs in the series, this is plate 4. Proof before the letterpress title, prior to the edition of 50. A rich, tonal impression printed on Chine appliqué mounted on sturdy wove paper. Fine condition apart from a 3/4-inch fold line at the lower sheet edge. Unsigned. $2,000.
Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon (April 20, 1840 – July 6, 1916) was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist. Redon started drawing as a child, and at the age of ten he was awarded a drawing prize at school. Aged fifteen, he began the formal study of drawing, but on the insistence of his father he changed to architecture. His failure to pass the entrance exams at Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts , returned to n his native Bordeaux, where he took up sculpture. Rodolphe Bresdin instructed him in etching and lithography. Redon's artistic career was interrupted in 1870 when he joined the army to serve in the Franco-Prussian War. At the end of the war, he moved to Paris, working almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography. He called his visionary works, conceived in shades of black, his noirs.