The Die, also called the Weight of Passions
1878/82
Medium
Graphite with pen and black ink, heightened with white lead (discolored) on cream wove paper
Dimensions
17.1 × 12.7 cm (6 3/4 × 5 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
147063
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This page from a sketchbook relates closely to Redon’s lithograph The Player, plate 5 in his 1879 album The Dream. In his novel Against the Grain (A Rebours) of 1884, Joris-Karl Huysmans described a contemporary charcoal drawing that could have been inspired by this work: “An enormous die where a sad eyelid blinked.”
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...