Le Buddha (The Buddha)

Odilon Redon

1895

Lithograph on chine appliqué

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A figure draped in a white cloth sits with their legs crossed, facing forward. A dark, swirling form envelops them, and a bright orb hovers above and to the left. Growing up on his father's isolated estate in Bordeaux, France, Odilon Redon said he sought out the shadows. While other artists were busy with oil color, Redon expressed his fantastical imaginings in black and white lithographs because they allowed him the moody, luminous look of charcoal. A gift of Gustave Flaubert's Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874) proved a goldmine for Redon. It inspired three series of lithographs and this print, which shows a shadowy figure enveloping what could be a black sun pushing out the day. Redon's goal was to suggest, not illustrate, a text's meaning. The printed verse comes from Flaubert's Buddha: T