“Saint John (The Blue Tunic)”
The great symbolist, Odilon Redon…
“Saint John”, also known as “The Blue Tunic”, is a pastel and charcoal on paper drawing by the French Symbolist artist, Odilon Redon, from 1892. This piece was made in the early years after Redon’s color transformation.
Redon was highly influenced by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and created a wildly imaginative portfolio of art. He was very depressed in his early years and worked mostly in black and white creating his series of “noirs”. Approximately the first half of Redon’s career was spent creating his noir pieces.
After the 1890s, Redon’s demeanor and outlook on life changed. Some believe that he simply became happier after the birth of his son, Arni, who was born in 1889. This outlook on life translated into his art. He started using vibrant colors and pastels. He used bright colors to depict mythological and fantastical images.
The drawing shown here is one of Redon’s pieces created after his color transformation. Many of his early pieces had this vibrant blue as the background. Along with religious and mythological subjects, Saint John was a favorite theme in Redon’s work. He created many black and white charcoal drawings of Saint John during his noir period including a 13-piece portfolio titled “Apocalypse of Saint John” from 1899.
“Saint John (The Blue Tunic)” is currently in a private collection.
For more on Odilon Redon, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
