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Wilson,
Michael.
NATURE
AND
IMAGINATION
The
Work
of
Odilon
Redon
Phaidon
Press
1978.
80
pages
hardcover
in
dustjacket.
70
illustrations,
30
in
colour
626
grams
Odilon
Redon
(1840-1916)
spent
the
first
part
of
his
life
as
a
little-known
painter
and
lithographer,
working
in
a
sinister,
macabre
vein
very
different
from
his
contemporaries,
the
French
Impressionists.
In
1884
he
suddenly
came
to
wider
notice
with
the
publication
of
Huysmans's
A
Rebours,
in
which
his
drawings
were
described
as
'the
most
fantastic
of
visions',
plunging
deep
'into
the
horrific
realms
of
bad
dreams
and
fevered
visions'
He
was
immediately
taken
up
by
the
Decadents
and
the
Symbolists,
and
his
career
flourished.
But
their
approval
really
stemmed
from
a
misunderstanding
of
his
aims.
He
himself
always
felt
that
his
work
should
not
need
the
literary
interpretation
of
intellectuals
but
should
stand
on
its
own
as
a
visual
experience.
It
is
his
fascination
with
the
relationship
between
nature
and
imagination
that
gives
his
work
its
peculiar,
visionary
quality
Later,
when
he
had
the
friendship
of
a
younger
generation
of
artists
(Maurice
Denis,
Bonnard,
Vuillard
and
Matisse),
Redon
completely
freed
himself
from
his
early
haunted
visions
and
painted
a
triumphant
succession
of
gaily
coloured
pictures:
mythological
subjects,
portraits.
seascapes
and
radiant
flower-pieces
In
this
introduction
to
Redon's
work
the
illustrations
and
text
have
been
thoughtfully
put
together
to
give
a
fuller
understanding
and
appreciation
of
a
complicated
but
entrancing
painter
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