Wildflowers c. 1905

Odilon Redon made these wildflowers with pastel, and just look at that vase. The way he models it is everything! Redon’s process is all about letting color create form. Nothing is outlined, everything is built up with these layers of dry pigment, and that brown paper peeks through in places, grounding the whole thing. There’s a tension between the observed and the invented, that makes Redon's work so interesting. Check out the flowers at the upper right. The way the blues and yellows combine, that’s not just observation. It's like he’s chasing after some fleeting feeling. The vase is cooly glazed, a dark and solid form. Redon is interested in so many facets of what painting can be. It’s this that puts him in conversation with painters like Manet or Fantin-Latour, but he’s pushing it further, into a dream space all his own. It’s really special.