The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Orpheus

Orpheus

c. 1903–10
(French, 1840–1916)
Sheet: 68.8 x 56.8 cm (27 1/16 x 22 3/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Wildenstein 885
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Another version of this pastel (now in the collection of the Musée Fabre de Montpellier) was part of a group of later works by Redon shown at the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art—better known as the Armory Show—which introduced the artist to American audiences.

Description

Drawn in vivid layers of pastel crayon, this work depicts the head of the poet and musician Orpheus. The story of the god of music, whose music carried on after his death through his lyre and head, fascinated Redon, who related to Orpheus's dedication to his art. The subject also aligned with Redon's broader interest in dreams and spirituality around this time and he represented Orpheus several times throughout his career, in various media. Here, the god's head floats as if in stasis while Mount Parnassus—the home of Apollo and the Muses—soars from behind.
  • after 1903-1910
    purchased by Henri Matisse [1869–1954] for his father, Émile Hippolyte Matisse [1840–1910]
    ? - by 1915
    Wilhelm Uhde [1874-1947], Paris
    1915 - 1917
    (Carroll Galleries, New York, sold to John Quinn, New York)
    1917-1924
    John Quinn [1870-1924], New York, purchased from his estate by the Cleveland Museum of Art through Joseph Brummer
  • Catalogue of International Exhibition of Modern Art: Association of American Painters and Sculptors : at the Armory of the Sixty-Ninth Infantry, Lexington Avenue, Twenty-Fifth and Twenty-Sixth Streets, New York, from February Fifteenth to March Fifteenth, Nineteen Hundred and Thirteen from Ten a.M. to Ten P.M. (Sundays Included). New York: Vreeland Advertising Press, 1913. Mentioned: p. 32, no. 307
    Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1921. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 96
    Watson, Margaret W. "Odilon Redon, A Great French Lyricist." The Arts 2, no. 5 (1922): 273-276. Reproduced: p. 275
    Pach, Walter. The Masters of Modern Art. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1924. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 14
    John Quinn, 1870-1925: Collection of Paintings, Water Colors, Drawings & Sculpture. Huntington, NY: Pidgeon Hill, 1926. Mentioned: p. 14; Reproduced: p. 107
    Milliken, W. M. "Orpheus, by Odilon Redon." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 6 (June 1926): 139-141. Mentioned: pp. 139-141.
    "Cleveland Museum Buys a Redon." The Art News (January 1, 1927): 1-2. Mentioned: p. 2
    "Cleveland's New Redon." Art Digest 1, no. 5 (January 1, 1927): 12. Mentioned: p. 12
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 39 archive.org
    Wilenski, R.H. French Painting. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1931. Mentioned: p. 332; Reproduced: pl. 141
    Pach, Walter. Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938. Mentioned: p. 166
    Holme, Bryan. Master Drawings. New York: The Studio, 1943. Reproduced: pl. 114
    Francis, Henry Sayles and Ary Leblond. Odilon Redon, 1840-1916: Pastels and Drawings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 17
    Sandström, Sven. Le monde imaginaire d'Odilon Redon. Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1955. Mentioned: p. 177; Reproduced: p. 175
    Rewald, John. "Quelques notes et documents sur Odilon Redon." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 48 (November 1956): 81-124. Reproduced: p. 114
    Berger, Klaus. "The Pastels of Odilon Redon." College Art Journal 16, no. 1 (Autumn 1956): 23-33. Mentioned: p. 32; Reproduced: p. 33
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 512 archive.org
    Berger, Klaus. Odilon Redon: Fantasy and Colour. Trans. Michael Bullock. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965. Mentioned: p. 208, no. 365; Reproduced p. 35
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 181 archive.org
    Henning, Edward B. Fifty Years of Modern Art, 1916-1966. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Mentioned: p. 7, 206; Reproduced: p. 7
    Hamilton, George Heard. Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880 to 1940. London: Penguin Books, 1967. Mentioned: p. 47; Reproduced: pl. 23B
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 181 archive.org
    Muehsam, Gerd. French Painters and Paintings from the Fourteenth Century to Post-Impressionism. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1970. Mentioned: pp. 490-491; Reproduced: p. 490
    Berman, Greta. "The Paradox of Odilon Redon." Konsthistorisk Tidskrift. 39, no. 1-2 (May 1970): 70-79. Reproduced: p. 78.
    Selz, Jean. Odilon Redon. Lugano: Uffici Press, 1971. Mentioned: p. 68; Reproduced: p. 54
    Cassou, Jean. Odilon Redon. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri, 1972. Reproduced: p. 47
    Lucie-Smith, Edward. Symbolist Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972. Mentioned: p. 78; Reproduced: p. 70
    Hobbs, Richard. Odilon Redon. London: Studio Vista, 1977. Reproduced: p. 150
    Christian, John. Symbolists and Decadents. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. Mentioned: p. 14, no. 4; Reproduced: p. 15
    Keay, Carolyn, ed. Odilon Redon. London: Academy Editions, 1977. Reproduced: p. 19
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 224 archive.org
    Wilson, Michael. Nature and Imagination: The Work of Odilon Redon. Oxford: Phaidon, 1978. Mentioned: pp. 56, 58; Reproduced: p. 57
    Zilczer, Judith. "The Noble Buyer": John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Washington, DC: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 1978. Mentioned: p. 180
    Canaday, John. Mainstreams of Modern Art. 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981. Mentioned: p. 370; Reproduced: p. 373
    Coustet, Robert. L'Univers d'Odilon Redon. Paris: Carnets de Dessins, 1984. Reproduced: p. 23
    Nobuo Abe. Rudon = Redon. Tōkyō: Shūeisha, 1986. Reproduced: no. 34
    Bacou, Roseline. Odilon Redon: Pastels. Trans. Beatrice Rehl. New York: George Braziller, 1987. Mentioned: pp. 18, 122, no. 41; Reproduced: p. 123
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987. Reproduced: front cover
    Zelanski, Paul and Mary Pat Fisher. The Art of Seeing. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1988. Mentioned: p. 90; Reproduced: p. 91
    "'La Rêverie esthétique': Symbolist Works on Paper." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 43, no. 1 (Summer 1988): 3-47. Mentioned: p. 34, no. 40; Reproduced: p. 45
    Kosinski, Dorothy M. Orpheus in Nineteenth-Century Symbolism. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 199
    Mindell, Arnold. Coma: Key to Awakening. Boston: Shambhala, 1989. Reproduced on cover
    Robinson, William H. "Puvis De Chavannes's "Summer" and the Symbolist Avant-Garde." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 1 (1991): 2-27. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 14 www.jstor.org
    Strickland, Carol and John Boswell. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 125
    Wildenstein, Alec. Odilon Redon, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992. Mentioned: vol. II, pp. 69-70, no. 885; Reproduced: p. 70
    Kapos, Martha, ed. The Post-Impressionists: A Retrospective. New York: Hugh Lauter Levin, 1993. Reproduced: p. 165
    "Abschied vom Traum einer Heilen Welt." Art, no. 7 (July 1994): 14-17. Mentioned: p. 16; Reproduced: p. 17
    Druick, Douglas W., et al. Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams, 1840-1916.Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994. Mentioned: p. 230; Reproduced: p. 233
    Jarrassé, Dominique. Odilon Redon, le rêve. Paris: Herscher, 1996. Mentioned: p. 46; Reproduced: p. 47
    Orizet, Jean, ed. Anthologie de la poésie française: les poètes et les oeuvres, les mouvements et les écoles. Paris: Larousse, 1998. Reproduced on cover
    Dempsey, Amy. Styles, Schools and Movements: An Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 43
    Bamford, Christopher. An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West. New Paltz, NY: Codhill Press, 2003. Reproduced on cover
    Janson, H.W. and Anthony Janson. History of Art: The Western Tradition. Rev 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 778
    Stefano, Eva di. "Il colore fiorisce." Art e Dossier (2005): 33-46. Reproduced: p. 37
    Sturgis, Alexander, Rupert Christiansen, Lois Oliver, and Michael Wilson. Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. London: National Gallery, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 25
    Robinson, William. "World Tour Comes to Cleveland." Cleveland Art : Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (October 2007): 3-5. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 5
    Robinson, William, "World Tour Comes to Cleveland", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 08, October 2007 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 5 archive.org
    Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Peter Trippi, Robert Upstone, and Patty Wageman. J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite. Groningen: Groninger Museum, 2008. Mentioned: p. 59; Reproduced: p. 61
    Yamamoto, Atsuko, and Akiya Takahashi. Motto shiritai rudon: shōgai to sakuhin. Tōkyō: Tōkyōbijutsu, 2011. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 64
    Chevrier, Jean-François. L'Hallucination artistique de William Blake à Sigmar Polke. Paris: L'Arachneen, 2012. Reproduced.
    Lemonedes, Heather. "Themes and Variations: Works on Paper from the Museum's Collection with a Musical Motif." Cleveland Art : Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (January/February 2015): 4-5. Reproduced: p. 4 clevelandart.org
    Illiano, Roberto, ed. Music and Figurative Arts in the Twentieth Century. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. Reproduced: Appendix, no.4
    Homburg, Cornelia, "Redon's Femmes aux Fleurs: Variations on a Theme." In Odilon Redon: Literature and Music, edited by Cornelia Homburg,175-95. Exh. Cat. Otterlo: Kröller-Müller Museum, 2018. Mentioned: 184, 207, no. 183; Reproduced: p. 184
    Henning, Edward B. The Spirit of Surrealism. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979. Mentioned: p. 44-45, 185; Reproduced: p.44, fig. 4; colorplate II
    Salsbury, Britany. “Collecting Dreams: An exhibition of the museum's outstanding collection of works by Odilon Redon." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 12-15. Reproduced: P. 12; Mentioned: P. 14-15.
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
    Collecting Dreams: Odilon Redon. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19, 2021-January 23, 2022).
    Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).
    Themes and Variations: Musical Drawings and Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 17, 2015).
    Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
    Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    La Reverie Esthetique: Symbolist Works on Paper. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 22, 1988).
    Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).
    Odilon Redon: Dream Creatures and Anemones. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 21-October 14, 1984).
    "The Noble Buyer": John Quinn, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Washington, DC: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1978).
    Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966).
    Odilon Redon (1840-1916): Pastels and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 29, 1951-January 20, 1952); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (February 1-March 1, 1952).
    19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).
    French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942).
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    Expressionism and Related Movements. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 26-February 28, 1939).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).
    Fifty Years of French Art. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 29 - November 28, 1926).
    Odilon Redon. Museum of French Art, New York (April 3 - May 1, 1922).
    Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (May 3 - September 15, 1921).
    International Exhibition of Modern Art. Armory of the Sixty-Ninth Infantry, New York (February 17 - March 15, 1913); Art Institute of Chicago (March 24 - April 16, 1913); Copley Society, Boston (April 23 - May 14, 1913).
  • {{cite web|title=Orpheus|url=false|author=Odilon Redon|year=c. 1903–10|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.25