I saw a large and pale sudden glow - Odilon Redon
Archival giclée
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Description
A dreamlike Symbolist work by Odilon Redon, featuring a boat adrift in a luminous, atmospheric expanse of colour.
Odilon Redon, a central figure in the Symbolist movement, produced this work during a period when he moved away from his earlier monochromatic charcoal drawings towards a more luminous, chromatic palette. The title, taken from the writings of Gustave Flaubert, suggests a dreamlike or visionary experience rather than a literal depiction of a maritime scene. The composition features a small boat with a single sail, positioned against an atmospheric background that dissolves into clouds of colour. Redon utilised pastel to achieve a soft, ethereal quality. The application of pigment is layered and delicate, allowing the texture of the paper to contribute to the overall effect. The deep blues of the water contrast with the warm, golden hues of the sky, creating a sense of mystery. The figures within the boat are rendered with minimal detail, serving as observers of the light rather than active participants in a narrative. This ambiguity is characteristic of Redon's approach, where the internal state of the viewer is as important as the subject matter itself. Unlike his contemporaries who focused on the objective observation of light, Redon used colour to evoke emotion and memory. The work avoids rigid structure, favouring instead a fluid transition between forms. The boat acts as a anchor for the eye, yet the surrounding space feels expansive and uncontained. By focusing on the interplay of light and shadow, Redon invites the viewer to contemplate the intangible aspects of the human experience. This print captures the subtle nuances of the original pastel, preserving the soft transitions and the luminous quality of the pigments. It is a piece that rewards quiet observation, revealing its details slowly over time.
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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.
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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.
I saw a large and pale sudden glow - 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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