Rocks on the Beach
Odilon Redon
French, 1840–1916
c. 1883
A small oil-on-paper study in which Redon calmly isolates a sun-bleached boulder on a wide beach, trying to record the quiet presence of stone and the subtle play of light and atmosphere.
You're first struck by its hush: a pale, monumental rock sits in a flat, sandy foreground beneath a soft blue sky, rendered in muted pinks, grays, and spare brushstrokes that make the scene feel both solid and ethereal.
By reducing landscape to light, color, and simplified form, this restrained picture marks Redon's shift from literal description toward a poetic, symbolic approach to nature that helped point painting toward modernist concerns with mood and abstraction.
Medium
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Dimensions
10 1/4 x 14 1/4" (26 x 36.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of The Ian Woodner Family Collection
Accession
236.2000
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
