Odilon Redon: Six dessins pour la tentation de Saint Antoine

The Octagon space presents the second series of “The Temptations of Saint Anthony” by Odilon Redon. Executed in 1889, the series comprises six lithographs and a frontispiece printed by Becquet on chine appliqué paper. These works are explicitly dedicated to Gustave Flaubert, whose prose poem “La Tentation de saint Antoine” served as a primary source of inspiration for Redon’s imagination.

The exhibition highlights Redon’s departure from classical iconographic fidelity. Unlike traditional depictions of the saint’s desert torments, Redon deconstructs the hagiographic narrative into allegories and visions of the unconscious. His compositions feature isolated, hybrid creatures, sphinxes, and sensual forms that drift within a wide white margin, reflecting a tormented inner world.

The presentation situates these lithographs within the broader context of Redon’s “poetics of black”. Influenced by Henri Fantin-Latour and Rodolphe Bresdin, Redon utilised lithography to translate the soft, shaded effects of his charcoal drawings into a reproducible medium. The exhibition explores his connection to Symbolist literature and his role in placing the logic of the visible at the service of the invisible.