Odilon Redon

Andries Bonger (1861-1936), Amsterdam,

by descent to his wife, Mme. Andries Bonger-van Gogh, née Anne Marie von Gogh (1862–1891), Almen, The Netherlands;

with The New Gallery, New York, by 1960,

where acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Powis Jones, New York, circa 1961;

with W.M. Brady & Co., New York, by 2012,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Odilon Redon, 1957, no. 24;

The Hague, Stedelijk Museum, Odilon Redon, 1957, no. 10;

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Dienst voor Schone Kunsten, 1957, no. 22;

Berne, Kunsthalle, Odilon Redon, 1840-1916, 1958, no. 25;

Poughkeepsie, Vassar College Art Museum & New York, Wildenstein, Vassar Centennial Loan Exhibition, 1961, no. 97;

New York, Museum of Modern Art & Chicago, Art Institute, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin, 1961-62, no. 95

M.D. Henkel, 'Die Sammlung A. Bonger in Amsterdam', Der Cicerone, 1930, p. 602, pl. 6;

D.A. de Graaf, 'Odilon Redon', Apollo (The Hague edition), May 1940, p. 22;

R. Bacou, Odilon Redon, Geneva 1956, vol. I, p. 72, no. 1 & vol. II, no. 32, fig. 32;

R.L. Herbert, Seurat's Drawings, New York 1962, p. 78;

R. Bacou, 'The Bonger Collection at Almen, Holland', Apollo, November 1964, no. 80, p. 401, fig. 5;

K. Berger, Odilon Redon, Fantasie und Farbe, Cologne 1964, no. 591;

G. Flaubert, 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Odilon Redon', Mead Museum Monographs, vol. II, Autumn 1980, pp. 29-30, fig. 7;

D. Gamboni, La Plume et le pinceau, Odilon Redon et la literature, Paris 1989, fig. 34;

F. Cachin et. al, Seurat, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1991, p. 98, fig. 21;

A. Wildenstein, Odilon Redon: Catalogue Raisonné de L'Oeuvre Peint et Dessine, Mythes et légendes, vol. II, Paris 1994, p. 161, no. 1068 (as Le Prisonnier à la Lucarne)

This haunting image dates to the early 1880s and is a powerful example of Redon’s ‘noirs’; drawings and lithographs, conceived in monochrome, where he explored the psychological, the macabre and the bizarre.

In Le Prisonnier à la Lucarne, a desperate looking figure has hauled itself up in front of a small opening in a thick stone wall. Staring out at us, with large, sad eyes and over frail, bent hands, Redon only increases the sense of physical and psychological confinement with his virtuoso use of charcoal and his subtle handling of chiaroscuro: the dream-like light allowing his subject to materialize, almost as a hallucination, from the darkness of the unseen cell. For another drawing which sees Redon focus on the theme of imprisonment, and its physiological effects, see Le Prisonnier, called Le Secret (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).¹ 

Redon’s interest in portraying the subconscious, the mysterious and the imaginative was initially fostered by a difficult childhood, where he spent long periods separated from his family on account of his suffering from epilepsy, and then by his time serving in the army during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. These two pivotal experiences, along with his exposure to the writings of men such as Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) and Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907), led him to reject the realism of his training at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris and to explore new subject matters that would, in time, establish him as a pioneer of both the Symbolist and Surrealist movements.

This drawing has a distinguished provenance, having belonged to Andries Bonger of Amsterdam. In 1889 Bonger married Vincent and Theo van Gogh’s younger sister, Anne Marie (1862-1891). He met Redon two years later and was to become, not only his most enthusiastic patron, but also a loyal friend with whom he corresponded for over twenty years.²

^1.New York, The Museum of Modern Art, inv. no. 199.52; Wildenstein, op. cit., p. 160, no. 1065

^2.D. Gamboni and M. Van Tilburg (eds.), Sans adieu : Andries Bonger, Odilon Redon, Correspondance 1894-1916, Paris 2022