Fine Art Poster
From £28
A giclée print on 200gsm matte fine art paper, using a twelve-colour process for accurate, fade-resistant colour. Supplied unframed, delivered flat or rolled.
The Marsh Flower, a Sad Human Head - Odilon Redon
Regular price
£28.00 GBP
Sale price
£28.00 GBP
Regular price
Archival giclée
Frames arrive ready to hang
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Made to order
Description
A haunting lithograph by Odilon Redon, featuring a melancholic human head emerging from a marsh flower, rendered in dramatic chiaroscuro.
Odilon Redon produced this lithograph as part of his 1885 portfolio, Hommage à Goya. The work displays the artist's preoccupation with the dreamlike and the irrational, themes that defined his contribution to the Symbolist movement. In this composition, a human head emerges from the centre of a flower, which rises from a dark, murky body of water. The head is rendered with a melancholic expression, surrounded by a radiant halo of light that contrasts with the surrounding gloom.
Redon utilised the medium of lithography to achieve a wide range of tonal values, moving from deep, velvety blacks to ethereal, luminous whites. This technical mastery allows for the creation of an atmosphere that feels both grounded in physical reality and detached from it. The floating spheres near the stem add to the sense of ambiguity, suggesting a world governed by internal logic rather than external observation. The work invites the viewer to consider the intersection of the organic and the psychological, a recurring motif in Redon's black-and-white prints, often referred to as his 'noirs'.
By stripping away conventional narrative structures, Redon focuses on the evocative power of the image itself. The figure, appearing as a hybrid entity, occupies a space between flora and humanity, challenging the viewer to interpret its presence within the desolate marsh setting. This print remains a representative example of Redon's ability to translate subconscious imagery into a tangible, printed form. The stark contrast between the illuminated face and the dark, textured background creates a visual tension that is characteristic of his graphic output during the 1880s.
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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.
Care and materials
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
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- 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
Complete The Look
The Marsh Flower, a Sad Human Head - Odilon Redon
Regular price
From £28.00 GBP
Sale price
From £28.00 GBP
Regular price
Fine Art Poster / A4 (21x29.7 cm) / -
Artist Biography
Odilon Redon
Redon's father made his fortune in the slave trade in Louisiana in the 1830s. The boy was conceived in New Orleans and born in Bordeaux in 1840. His parents sent him to live with an uncle on a rural estate at Peyrelebade, where he spent most of his childhood alone. He was sickly and withdrawn. The isolation produced someone who looked inward when he drew.
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.
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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Fine Art Framed
From £45
The same fine art print in a solid wood frame with UV-protective acrylic glaze and rigid backing. Five frame colours. Arrives ready to hang.
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