About Odilon Redon

  • Biography

    Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux, France on April 20, 1840. He was the son of a French emigre who had struck it rich in New Orleans. Young Odilon was named for his Creole mother, Odile. He spent a sickly childhood at Peyrelebade, his father's estate in the Medoc.

    As an escape from loneliness, he turned to music, drawing and daydreams. Peyrelebade became a basic source of inspiration for all his art, providing him with both subjects from nature and a stimulus for his fantasies, and Redon returned there constantly until its enforced sale in 1897.

    Redon received his education in Bordeaux from 1851, rapidly showing talent in many art forms; he studied drawing with Stanislas Gorin from 1855. He also became an accomplished violin...

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