Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon was born Bertrand-Jean Redon on 20 April 1840 in Bordeaux, France. He began drawing lessons as a teenager with Stanislas Gorin in Bordeaux, and at his father's urging attempted architecture, failing the entrance examination at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He later returned to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for a brief period of painting study under Jean-Leon Gerome in 1864. Back in Bordeaux, he studied sculpture and trained in etching, engraving, and lithography under the printmaker Rodolphe Bresdin.

Redon developed a distinctive body of work in charcoal and lithography known as the "noirs," dense, dreamlike images that became the foundation of his reputation as a leading figure of Symbolism, a movement whose visionary, interior-facing imagination is now widely seen as a precursor to Surrealism. He was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1903. In 1913 he received the largest single artist representation in the International Exhibition of Modern Art, the Armory Show, which traveled to New York, Chicago, and Boston and introduced his work to American audiences on a large scale. Odilon Redon died on 6 July 1916 in Paris.

Redon's critical reputation was built gradually through the late 19th century and consolidated in the early 20th. In 1913 he received the largest single artist representation in the Armory Show, the exhibition that introduced European avant-garde art, including his own visionary imagery, to American audiences in New York, Chicago, and Boston. Standard reference sources describe him as a leading Symbolist whose work is considered a precursor to Surrealism. In the modern era, museums have continued to present him as a pivotal transitional figure: the Cleveland Museum of Art's 2021 exhibition, "Strange and Wonderful: Odilon Redon," presented his paintings, drawings, and prints as explorations of fantasy, literature, and the subconscious.

Redon's auction market is anchored by Fleurs, a floral still life that sold for USD 4,092,500 at Christie's in 2018, the highest publicly reported auction price for the artist as of mid-2026. As a 19th century Symbolist whose reputation rests primarily on museum holdings rather than gallery representation, his market trades almost entirely through the major auction houses, with prices spanning a wide range depending on medium, from modestly priced lithographs and drawings to seven-figure pastels and paintings.

No published catalogue raisonne for Redon has been confirmed in available sources, so provenance and the judgment of major auction house specialists carry significant weight in authentication. No current gallery or estate representative could be confirmed either, consistent with his status as a historical artist whose market runs through the secondary market rather than a dealer network. Because his output ranges so widely in medium and scale, from small lithographs to major pastels and paintings, collectors should treat any single price point with care and weigh it against the specific work's medium, size, and exhibition history rather than against the artist's name alone.