Odilon Redon's Most Famous Artworks at a Glance

1. The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity — 1882

The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity was created in 1882 and belongs to Redon's portfolio À Edgar Poe, dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe.

The Museum of Modern Art describes the work as an enigmatic image in which an eye-shaped balloon rises above a marshy landscape while carrying a severed head on a plate.

The image demonstrates Redon's preference for imagination over direct observation. Rather than recording a scene that could exist in the physical world, he creates a visual puzzle that seems to emerge from a dream.

The work also demonstrates the importance of printmaking to Redon's career. Lithography allowed him to distribute his mysterious black-and-white imagery widely, contributing significantly to his reputation among Symbolist artists and writers.

2. The Cyclops — c. 1914

The Cyclops depicts the mythological Polyphemus looking over a mountainous landscape toward the sleeping Galatea.

The work is held by the Kröller-Müller Museum and is generally dated to around 1914.

Redon transforms the traditional myth into an intensely dreamlike image. The enormous eye of the Cyclops becomes the most conspicuous feature, turning vision itself into a mysterious and almost independent presence.

The bright colours distinguish the work sharply from Redon's earlier black-and-white “noirs.” The painting demonstrates how his late art could combine Symbolist imagination with a much more radiant visual language.

3. Closed Eyes — 1890

The National Gallery of Art records Yeux Clos (Closed Eyes) as a lithograph from 1890.

The image shows a head and shoulders with the eyes closed. The absence of an external narrative forces attention toward the psychological state of the figure.

The closed eyes can be understood in relation to Redon's broader interest in the world of dreams and imagination. Instead of asking viewers to look outward at a recognizable reality, the work encourages an inward gaze.

The restrained monochromatic appearance also belongs to the visual world of Redon's “noirs,” the black-and-white drawings and prints that dominated his earlier career.

4. Ophelia among the Flowers — About 1905–1908

The National Gallery in London dates Ophelia among the Flowers to about 1905–1908 and identifies the medium as pastel on paper.

Ophelia's head appears near the edge of the composition, surrounded by vibrantly coloured flowers. Her face is drained of colour while the surrounding vegetation glows intensely.

The National Gallery explains that Redon returned to the subject of Ophelia repeatedly between approximately 1900 and 1908.

Unlike John Everett Millais's famous, more literal interpretation of Ophelia, Redon's version does not attempt to reconstruct Shakespeare's physical setting. Instead, he creates an undefined dreamlike space in which the boundary between figure and flowers becomes uncertain.

5. The Chariot of Apollo — 1905–1916

Redon created numerous versions of the Chariot of Apollo theme in oil, pastel and drawing.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art records its version as dating from 1905–1916 and describes Apollo driving the mythological horses of the sun through a boundless sky.

The absence of a clearly defined ground plane is important. The horses and charioteer appear to move through an expansive, almost limitless field of colour.

The subject therefore becomes less a conventional mythological narrative and more an exploration of light, movement and colour.

6. Large Vase with Flowers — c. 1912

Large Vase with Flowers, in the National Gallery of Art, dates to approximately 1912.

The painting shows a blue vase filled with flowers in orange, pink, yellow and blue. The blossoms are surrounded by green leaves, while a few petals appear to float away from the bouquet.

The National Gallery of Art records the work as an oil on canvas and emphasizes the highly textured and varied application of paint.

The subject demonstrates the importance of flowers in Redon's mature art. What might ordinarily be a conventional still-life subject becomes an opportunity to explore colour, atmosphere and transformation.

7. Flowers in a Vase — c. 1910

The National Gallery of Art records Flowers in a Vase as an oil on canvas dating to approximately 1910.

The bouquet includes daisies, cornflowers, poppies, roses and other flowers arranged in a large bronze vase.

The painting is particularly important for understanding Redon's late fascination with flowers. The subject is recognizable, but the brushwork and colour give the bouquet an almost dreamlike existence.

Redon's floral paintings demonstrate that his late embrace of colour was not simply a change of palette. Colour became a means of creating an imaginative world.

8. The Buddha — 1895

The Buddha is a lithograph published in 1895 as part of L'Estampe Originale.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the work as a lithograph on chine collé and identifies its publication context within Album IX of L'Estampe Originale.

The subject reflects Redon's attraction to spiritual and mystical imagery during the period when his black-and-white prints were central to his career.

Redon's interest in Buddhism, mythology, literature and religious imagery was never limited to straightforward illustration. He used these subjects as starting points for creating ambiguous visual experiences.

9. Pandora — 1910–1912

Pandora belongs to Redon's mature colour period and dates to 1910–1912.

The National Gallery of Art records the painting as an oil on canvas. The figure of Pandora is set against a highly imaginative landscape of soft blues, lilacs, pinks and vivid organic forms.

The lower portion of the composition contains richly coloured forms that appear partly floral and partly abstract.

This ambiguity is characteristic of Redon's late work. He does not completely separate recognizable objects from pure colour and form.

10. Five Butterflies — c. 1912

Five Butterflies is a watercolor from approximately 1912 in the National Gallery of Art's collection.

The butterflies are arranged across a light background, with variations in colour and degree of abstraction.

The subject connects with Redon's broader interest in transformation and the relationship between recognizable natural forms and imaginative invention.

Like his flower paintings, the butterflies become more than simple observations of nature. Their arrangement and colour create a quiet, poetic world.

Odilon Redon's Famous “Noirs”

Before Redon became famous for colour, he worked extensively in charcoal, lithography and other black-and-white media.

He called these works his noirs, or “blacks.”

The term describes more than their colour. These works explore a psychological and imaginary world populated by strange creatures, floating heads, mysterious landscapes, eyes, monsters and literary figures.

The Museum of Modern Art notes that Redon's reputation flourished partly because lithography allowed his imagery to circulate widely.

His black-and-white prints were especially admired by the Symbolist writers and artists of fin-de-siècle Paris.

Redon's Relationship with Symbolism

Odilon Redon is one of the artists most closely associated with French Symbolism.

Symbolist artists sought to move beyond literal representation and explore ideas, dreams, emotions, myths and states of consciousness.

Redon's art fits this approach particularly well because many of his images cannot be explained as straightforward representations of observed reality.

An eye becomes a balloon. A cyclops emerges from a mountain. A flower becomes an explosion of colour. A human head floats within an undefined space.

These transformations make Redon's work a crucial bridge between nineteenth-century Symbolism and later developments in modern art.

Redon and Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an important literary influence on Redon.

Redon created a portfolio dedicated to Poe in 1882, À Edgar Poe, which included The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity.

The connection between Poe's writing and Redon's art lies in their shared fascination with psychological uncertainty, mystery and the boundary between reality and imagination.

Redon's images do not simply illustrate Poe. Instead, they translate the atmosphere of Poe's writing into visual form.

Redon and Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony was another major literary source for Redon.

The Museum of Modern Art notes that Redon was deeply moved by Flaubert's 1874 prose poem and created three separate projects based on it.

These lithographic series gave Redon a vast imaginative universe populated by supernatural beings, religious figures, monsters and strange creatures.

The works demonstrate how literature could provide Redon with a framework for exploring the subconscious rather than simply supplying subjects for illustration.

Redon's Transition from Black to Colour

One of the most important developments in Redon's career was his transition from black-and-white imagery to colour.

The National Gallery of Art explains that Redon rarely used colour until he was almost fifty years old.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, his work became increasingly dominated by pastel, oil and other colour media.

The change was profound.

The mysterious darkness of the noirs gave way to flowers, mythological figures, pastel landscapes, butterflies and luminous skies.

Yet the imaginative principle remained the same. Redon continued to create images that existed between observation and dream.

Flowers in Redon's Late Art

Flowers became one of Redon's most important late subjects.

The National Gallery of Art holds numerous examples, including Flowers in a Vase, Large Vase with Flowers and Wildflowers.

Redon described flowers in highly personal terms and treated them as extraordinary sources of light and colour.

His floral still lifes are therefore different from conventional botanical studies. The flowers may be recognizable, but their colours, arrangements and surrounding spaces create a sense of transformation.

The bouquet becomes an imaginative event rather than merely an arrangement of plants.

Redon and Mythology

Mythological subjects appear throughout Redon's career.

His late works include The Cyclops, The Chariot of Apollo, Pandora and other figures drawn from classical mythology.

Redon did not approach mythology as a strict academic painter.

Instead, myths gave him a vocabulary of dreams, transformation, desire, fear and the supernatural.

His Cyclops, for example, becomes a gigantic eye observing a sleeping figure from behind the landscape. The myth becomes a psychological image.

Redon and Literature

Literature was one of the central sources of Redon's imagination.

His work engaged with Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire and other writers whose subjects and atmospheres resonated with Symbolist interests.

Rather than illustrating literary scenes literally, Redon often translated their emotional or psychological qualities into visual symbols.

This approach helped distinguish his art from academic history painting and from the observational goals of Impressionism.

Redon Compared with Impressionism

Redon lived during the same broad period as the Impressionists, but his artistic objectives were very different.

Impressionist painters often explored the visual effects of changing light, contemporary life and direct observation.

Redon instead placed imagination at the centre of his art.

His landscapes and flowers could begin with observed nature, but they were transformed through colour, symbolism and dreamlike invention.

This distinction is especially clear when comparing his early noirs with conventional landscape painting. Redon's landscapes are often psychological spaces rather than records of a specific location.

Redon's Influence on Modern Art

Redon's work became increasingly important to later generations of artists.

His belief in imagination, his transformation of natural forms and his freedom from literal representation anticipated concerns that would become central to modernism and Surrealism.

The Museum of Modern Art's Redon collection emphasizes the breadth of his influence and the importance of his drawings, prints, pastels and paintings.

His work demonstrates that an artist could move from recognizable nature into abstraction without completely abandoning recognizable forms.

What Makes Odilon Redon's Art Unique?

Odilon Redon's Major Artistic Phases

How to Understand The Eye like a Strange Balloon

The simplest way to approach The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity is to treat the eye as a symbol of consciousness rather than a literal object.

The eye observes, but it is also separated from an ordinary human body.

The balloon carries it upward, away from the physical world.

The severed head beneath it intensifies the strange relationship between body, mind and vision.

The result is an image in which seeing itself becomes mysterious.

How to Understand The Cyclops

The Cyclops similarly transforms vision into the central subject.

Polyphemus's enormous eye watches Galatea from a distance.

Rather than emphasizing the violence associated with the myth, Redon creates an image of longing, observation and isolation.

The bright landscape and unusual colours further soften the threatening character of the giant.

The result is a psychological reinterpretation of classical mythology rather than a straightforward illustration of the ancient story.

How to Understand Redon's Flower Paintings

Redon's flower paintings should not be understood simply as botanical still lifes.

He uses recognizable flowers as starting points for experiments in colour, texture and atmosphere.

In Large Vase with Flowers, for example, the flowers remain recognizable but the surrounding colours and floating petals create a sense of movement and transformation.

The flowers appear to exist between physical objects and pure painterly colour.

Odilon Redon Prints, Paintings & Artwork

Redon's art is particularly appealing to collectors because his work spans several dramatically different visual worlds: mysterious black-and-white prints, Symbolist dream imagery, mythological scenes, expressive portraits, luminous flowers and atmospheric colour compositions.

For those searching for Odilon Redon prints, Odilon Redon canvas prints, Odilon Redon framed prints or Odilon Redon reproductions, some of the most recognizable subjects include The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity, The Cyclops, Ophelia among the Flowers, The Chariot of Apollo, Closed Eyes and his celebrated floral compositions.

Explore the Odilon Redon collection at Alpha Art Gallery for artwork inspired by his most famous paintings, prints and Symbolist legacy.

Frequently Asked Questions About Odilon Redon

Sources & Further Reading