Head of a Young Woman - Odilon Redon
Archival giclée
Ready to hang
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Description
A luminous pastel portrait by Symbolist artist Odilon Redon, capturing a young woman in profile against a radiant, dreamlike background.
Odilon Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, moved away from the literal representation of the physical world to explore the internal realms of imagination and dream. This portrait of a young woman demonstrates his mastery of pastel, a medium he favoured for its soft, atmospheric qualities. The subject is rendered in profile, a classic compositional choice that lends a sense of timelessness and quiet contemplation to the work. The figure emerges from a hazy, luminous background. Redon employs a technique of layering colour, where the golden yellow light seems to emanate from behind the subject, creating a halo effect. The texture of the pastel is visible, with soft strokes that blur the edges of the face and neck, allowing the form to dissolve into the surrounding space. This lack of sharp definition is characteristic of Redon's later work, where he prioritised mood and psychological depth over anatomical precision. The palette is dominated by warm, earthy tones for the figure, contrasted against the bright, almost ethereal yellow of the background. The subtle inclusion of blue and violet hues in the lower portion of the composition adds a layer of complexity to the colour harmony. The woman's expression remains enigmatic, her gaze directed away from the viewer, which invites a personal interpretation of her inner state. By focusing on the interplay of light and colour, Redon creates an image that feels suspended between reality and a dreamlike state. This work captures the essence of his artistic philosophy, where the objective is to evoke a feeling rather than to document a likeness. The delicate application of pigment and the deliberate ambiguity of the setting ensure that the viewer remains engaged with the emotional resonance of the piece.
Return policy
Because every print is made to order, we don't offer change-of-mind returns, refunds or exchanges. If your order arrives faulty, damaged or incorrect, we'll replace it free of charge — just contact us within 48 hours of delivery. EU customers have a 14-day cooling-off right. See our refunds page for full details.
Shipping
We ship worldwide, printing at the production hub nearest to your delivery address. Delivery times and costs vary by destination — you'll see the options available to you at checkout.
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.
Head of a Young Woman - Odilon Redon
Our Features
Designed for Lasting Impact
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
- Choose poster, framed print, canvas or framed canvas
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- 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
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
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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