The Birth of Venus, 1900 - 1912

Odilon Redon, a French artist who lived between 1840 and 1916, painted "The Birth of Venus" using oils. He employed traditional art materials and processes, but the way Redon handled the oil paint is quite modern. You can see how the brushstrokes remain visible and how the colours blend into each other. It looks like he has worked the colours into the canvas in a series of layers, perhaps using rags as much as brushes to achieve that misty, atmospheric effect. The painting surface is far from perfectly smooth, and that’s the point – this picture is as much about the sensation of paint as it is about the mythological subject. Redon deliberately draws our attention to the material nature of the work. By doing so, he prompts us to see beyond the old distinction between craft and fine art. The focus on materials and making reveals how an artwork's full meaning is interwoven with its method of production.