Butterflies c. 1910

Odilon Redon painted these butterflies using oil on canvas, and what a trip it must have been! I can imagine him there, dabbing at the canvas, lost in a world of his own creation. The way the colors blend and swirl, it's like he's conjuring a dream right before our eyes. And those butterflies! They’re hovering between the real and the imagined. What was Redon thinking as he painted these creatures? The paint feels thin, the colors translucent. It’s like he's not just depicting butterflies but capturing something deeper about the cycle of life and transformation. The orange and umber butterfly seems like it has landed right on the canvas, with these tiny antennae and the way the light hits those wings. Painting can be such a solitary pursuit, but it's also a conversation with everyone who came before. You can see echoes of Turner’s landscapes and Delacroix's use of colour. It’s like Redon is picking up threads from the past and weaving them into something new. Each brushstroke feels like a question, an invitation to see the world in a new way.