A Strange Juggler (Un Étrange jongleur) from Homage to Goya (Hommage à Goya)
Odilon Redon
French, 1840–1916
1885
An 1885 lithograph with chine-appliqué by Odilon Redon that translates a haunting, dreamlike vision—a 'strange juggler'—into a tactile, symbolic image meant to evoke inner feeling rather than outward likeness.
A mask-like, wide-eyed face peers from heavy dark drapery beside a flat round disc and a radiating sunburst, the velvety blacks and soft, whispery grays creating an intimate but unsettling atmosphere that feels half memory, half nightmare.
Part of Redon’s Homage to Goya and the Symbolist turn away from literal representation, this print helped open modern art to explorations of the unconscious, poetic ambiguity, and the power of evocative, symbolic imagery.
Medium
One from a portfolio of six lithographs with chine appliqué
Dimensions
composition: 7 13/16 x 7 1/2" (19.8 x 19 cm); sheet: 17 3/4 x 12 5/16" (45.1 x 31.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of The Ian Woodner Family Collection
Accession
161.2000.5
Palette
Exhibitions
