Below, I Saw the Vaporous Contours of a Human Form

Download2348 × 3400 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
Medium: Lithograph on China paper laid on wove paper
Size: Image: 25.3 x 18.1 cm (9 15/16 x 7 1/8 in.); Sheet: 44.9 x 31.2 cm (17 11/16 x 12 5/16 in.)
Culture: France, late 19th Century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

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.