The Birth of Venus 1912

Odilon Redon made this The Birth of Venus with oil on canvas, and as with many of his paintings, there's a sense of searching. It’s like he’s feeling his way through the image. Redon layers washes of color – pinks, blues, creams – so thinly, they almost disappear into the canvas. The surface is scrubbed and stained, the brushstrokes blurred, almost as if the whole thing is emerging from a dream. Look closely at the figure of Venus; the lines are soft, blurred, and almost hesitant. This isn’t a Venus of hard edges, but one of suggestion and whisper. The process of making here is almost more important than the image itself. This piece has a lot in common with the work of Gustave Moreau. Both artists shared an interest in mythology and a similar sensibility when it came to open-ended and subjective methods of artmaking. Ultimately, Redon’s Venus floats in a world of ambiguity, inviting us to dream along with him.