Primitive Being
Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)c. 1876
View the original$12
Type
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Odilon Redon himself described this drawing as representing “a primitive being contemplating the head of a giant.” During Redon’s life, new ideas of evolution provoked a fascination with other societies that were unmediated by industrialization and which Europeans viewed as “primitive” and closer to the natural world. Redon’s figures relate to these racially insensitive romanticized stereotypes, while also revealing other windows of creative thought.
Although the work evokes the biblical story of David and Goliath, its mood is mysterious and reflective rather than triumphant.
This is one of Redon’s celebrated black-and-white works he called “noirs” (blacks), which were strange, often disturbing images derived from the subconscious mind or dream world. In them, the artist deftly applied velvety charcoal and black chalk using a repertory of techniques—wiping, rubbing, erasing—to bring out a rich variety of tonal, chromatic, and textural effects.
- Medium
- Various charcoals and black chalk, with stumping, wiping, and erasing, fixed, on cream wove paper
- Original size
- 44.5 × 36.9 cm (17 9/16 × 14 9/16 in.)
Museum record · 3 owners · 5 exhibitions
Provenance
- Sold by the artist to Ambroise Vollard, Paris, Feb. 10, 1899.
- Sold, Hôtel Drouot Richelieu, Paris, June 12, 1992, lot.
- Sold by Marc de Montebello, New York, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, 1993 (promised to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2022.
Exhibitions
- Paris, Galerie de France, Exposition de fusains d'Odilon Redon, 1942.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams, 1994, 437.
- Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, As in a Dream: Odilon Redon, 2007, 314.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Gray Collection: Seven Centuries of Art, Sept. 25, 2010–Jan. 2, 2011.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection, Jan. 25–Oct. 12, 2020; traveled to Berkeley, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Aug. 4–Nov. 28, 2021.
