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53. Odilon Redon (1840-1916) C’est le diable, portent sous les deux ailes les sept péchés capitaux (It is the Devil, Bearing Beneath his Two Wings the Seven Deadly Sins)
Lithograph, 1888, from Tentation de Saint-Antoine, 1re Serie, 253 x 200 mm., Mellerio 88. Fine impression on chine-appliqué with full margins from the only edition of 58; a few spots of foxing in the margins. Speak of the devil (and of Redon) and he appears. Redon was one of the great and original masters of lithography, and one speaks invariably of his “blacks.” For, often enough, and in keeping with his subject matter, his images do not appear as black on white paper, but as bits of white extracted from the blackness. The devil here resembles no other in art and faintly emerges from a darkness that is not of our world but his. At the same time, the image is a glimpse into the ageless depths of the human psyche. Despite the art historical style of the print, men across many centuries would have understood it. |
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