Armor
1891
Medium
Charcoal and conté crayon
Dimensions
20 x 14 1/2 in. (50.7 x 36.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1948
Accession Number
48.10.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Odilon Redon’s *Armor* (1891) exemplifies the artist’s celebrated “noirs,” a series of charcoal drawings that explore the mysterious and the subconscious. Working in charcoal and conté crayon on paper, Redon achieves velvety blacks and soft gradations that lend the work a dreamlike atmosphere. The drawing presents a female figure juxtaposed with motifs of helmets and armor, suggesting themes of protection, identity, and inner strength rather than literal battle. A central figure of the Symbolist movement, Redon rejected the optical realism of Impressionism in favor of evocative imagery drawn ...
About the Artist
Odilon Redon · 1840–1916
Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was a French Symbolist painter, printmaker, and pastellist whose visionary art bridged the 19th-century Symbolist movement and 20th-century Surrealism. Born Bertrand Redon in Bordeaux on April 20, 1840, he earned the nickname "Odilon" from his mother Odile. His father, who made his fortune in the Louisiana slave trade, conceived Odilon in New Orleans before the family retu...