Title page to the series, The Haunted House (La Maison Hantée)

Art Historical Context

Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where Odilon Redon's *Title page to the series, The Haunted House (La Maison Hantée)* (1896) invites visitors into a shadowy realm of mystery. This lithograph on delicate china paper, measuring 17 11/16 x 12 1/2 inches, serves as the evocative frontispiece for Redon's series inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton's gothic tale *The Haunters and the Haunted*. Created during the fin-de-siècle Symbolist movement, it captures the era's fascination with the supernatural, dreams, and the unseen forces lurking in the human psyche. Redon, a pioneering French Symbolist, mastered lithography to produce his "Noirs"—monochromatic works rich in texture and atmosphere. Here, the thin china paper enhances the velvety depth of his crayon-like strokes, evoking ghostly apparitions and haunted architecture with subtle gradations of black and gray. Unlike his later colorful pastels, this print showcases his early expertise in printmaking, blending literary illustration with personal vision to blur reality and nightmare. Acquired through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1928, this piece highlights Redon's influence on modern fantasy art, bridging 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century Surrealism. Step closer to feel the chill of its spectral allure—a perfect gateway to exploring the eerie elegance of Symbolism.

About the Artist

Odilon Redon|Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton · 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...