And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand - Odilon Redon
Archival giclée
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Description
A striking lithograph from Odilon Redon's 1899 Apocalypse series, featuring an ethereal angel emerging from deep shadow.
This lithograph is part of the Apocalypse de Saint-Jean series, a collection of twelve prints produced by Odilon Redon in 1899. The work depicts a scene from the Book of Revelation, where an angel descends to bind the dragon. Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, moved away from the objective observation of the natural world to explore the internal realms of dreams, memory, and the subconscious. The composition is defined by a stark contrast between light and shadow. The angel emerges from a deep, velvety black void, a technique Redon mastered through his extensive work with lithographic ink. The figure is rendered with soft, ethereal textures, suggesting a spectral presence rather than a physical one. The light source appears to emanate from the angel itself, illuminating the wings and the chain held in its hand, while the surrounding darkness remains impenetrable. This use of chiaroscuro creates a sense of weightlessness and mystery. Redon often referred to his black-and-white works as his 'noirs'. These prints allowed him to manipulate tone and texture to evoke emotional responses rather than literal interpretations. The figure of the angel is stylised, with elongated forms and a solemn expression that aligns with the apocalyptic subject matter. By focusing on the psychological impact of the biblical narrative, Redon creates an image that feels both ancient and otherworldly. The print captures the tension of the moment, as the angel prepares to secure the abyss. This piece demonstrates the artist's ability to transform traditional religious iconography into a personal, dreamlike vision, characteristic of his late nineteenth-century output.
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Manufacturing
Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand - Odilon Redon
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Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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Artist Biography
Odilon Redon
For the first two decades of his career he worked exclusively in black: charcoal drawings and lithographs he called his noirs. Floating eyeballs, severed heads with closed lids, spiders with human faces, plants that grow teeth. The images are hallucinatory but precisely rendered, closer to medical illustration than fantasy. He published his first lithograph album, Dans le Reve, in 1879. Nobody noticed.
Recognition came sideways. In 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans published A rebours, a novel about a reclusive aesthete who decorates his rooms with Redon's prints. The book became a cult text for the Symbolist movement and Redon became famous by association. Stephane Mallarme, the Symbolist poet, became a close friend. Redon also completed a series of lithographs dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, whose poems Mallarme and Baudelaire had translated into French.
After 1900 he stopped making noirs entirely and shifted to colour: pastels and oils of flowers, mythological figures and butterflies in palettes that anticipate Matisse. The transition was so complete that the Surrealists later claimed the black work while the Fauves claimed the colour, and neither group seemed to notice they were talking about the same person.
He studied under Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which is an unlikely pairing: Gerome painted Roman gladiators with photographic precision. Redon painted eyeballs attached to balloons. Goya and Delacroix were the influences that actually stuck.
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