Large Green Vase with Mixed Flowers 1910 - 1912

Odilon Redon made this bouquet of flowers in a vase with pastel on paper. You can feel the pastel, right? There’s a surface quality that’s almost like skin, a skin of colour built up in little marks. Redon’s all about colour, but there's an underlying sense of light and dark, like a secret code. Look at the way the colours aren’t quite what they seem. Is that green vase really green, or is it a collection of blues and yellows playing tricks on your eyes? And the flowers, they’re not just pretty, they’re almost alive. The flowers in the vase seem to emerge from the background and glow. Everything's soft and hazy, like a dream you can almost remember. There is something about these flowers, they don't feel quite real, more like feelings. I think of people like Guston or even Bonnard, who also worked with colour to make something that’s not just a picture, but an experience. Redon creates a world where colour and feeling come together, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.