Odilon Redon | Evocation

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The 'mystery' and the evocation of the Redon's work represent an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche. He himself wanted to "place the visible at the service of the invisible". Thus, although his work seems filled with strange being and grotesque dichotomies, his aim was to represent pictorially the ghosts of his own mind, the ghosts of the fallen, invisible world.  The most telling source of Redon's inspiration and the forces behind his works can be found in his journal A Soi-même (To Myself). His process was explained best by himself when he said: "I have often, as an exercise and as sustenance, painted before an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an insatiate thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased."