The Chimera with Green Eyes Turns, Bays

The Chimera with Green Eyes Turns, Bays

Odilon Redon, 1888

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Artist: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
Medium: Lithograph
Culture: France, 19th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

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.

More by Odilon Redon

Baronne de Domecy

Baronne de Domecy

Odilon Redon, about 1900

Vision- vase of flowers

Vision- vase of flowers

Odilon Redon, 1900

Les Anemones (Still Life with Anemones)

Les Anemones (Still Life with Anemones)

Odilon Redon, c. 1900–10

Orpheus

Odilon Redon, c. 1903–10

Evocation of Roussel

Evocation of Roussel

Odilon Redon, c. 1912

Flower Clouds

Odilon Redon, c. 1903

Large Vase with Flowers

Large Vase with Flowers

Odilon Redon, c. 1912

Le pavot noir

Vase of Flowers

Vase of Flowers

Odilon Redon, 1916

Wildflowers

Odilon Redon, c. 1905

Feldblumen

Odilon Redon, 1900s

Bouquet of Flowers

Bouquet of Flowers

Odilon Redon, ca. 1900–1905

Visually similar

Profile of Light

Odilon Redon, 1886

Pilgrim of the Sublunary World, plate 5 of 6

Pilgrim of the Sublunary World, plate 5 of 6

Odilon Redon, 1891

I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24

I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24

Odilon Redon, 1896

I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed to Be Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24

I Have Sometimes Seen in the Sky What Seemed to Be Like Forms of Spirits, plate 21 of 24

Odilon Redon, 1896

De gevangen Pegasus

De gevangen Pegasus

Odilon Redon, 1889

Knielende man voor treurende vrouw

Knielende man voor treurende vrouw

Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine, 1774 - 1789

Apparition

Odilon Redon, about 1880–1890

Antonius: Ergens moeten oervormen bestaan wier lichamen slechts reflecties zijn

Antonius: Ergens moeten oervormen bestaan wier lichamen slechts reflecties zijn

Odilon Redon, 1889

And Bound Him a Thousand Years

And Bound Him a Thousand Years

Odilon Redon, 1899

Precarious Glimmering, a Head Suspended from Infinity, plate 3 of 6

Precarious Glimmering, a Head Suspended from Infinity, plate 3 of 6

Odilon Redon, 1891

Te Atua (The Gods) Small Plate [verso]

Te Atua (The Gods) Small Plate [verso]

Pilgrim of the Sublunary World, plate 5 of 6

Pilgrim of the Sublunary World, plate 5 of 6

Odilon Redon, 1891