The Birth of Venus by Odilon Redon

The Birth of Venus 1912

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odilonredon

Private Collection

painting, oil-paint

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painting

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oil-paint

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impressionist landscape

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figuration

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oil painting

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roman-mythology

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mythology

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painting painterly

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symbolism

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history-painting

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nude

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erotic-art

Copyright: Public domain

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.

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