Redon played a major role in the revival of pastel in France in the late 19th century. Though he had worked almost exclusively in black and white throughout his youth — using charcoal and lithography — the change to color that he made around 1890 signified a shift from asceticism to sensuality. He wrote to his friend, the collector Adries Bonger, “Pastel keeps me going, both materially and morally; it makes me feel young again.” He began making still lifes in pastel as a way of mastering color, but he found they ignited his imagination; he spoke of them as representing “the meeting points of two shores: representation and memory.”
Credit Line: Text courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
