L'ange déchu

Painted in 1875, L'ange déchu is a work by Odilon Redon, now in the collection of Museum Gouda, that reflects the artistic concerns of the late 19th century — an era of fundamental transformation in both the methods and purposes of European and American painting. Odilon Redon was the most purely poetic of the French Symbolists, creating an art of pure imagination — floating eyes, giant spiders, mythological beings, and luminous flower bouquets — drawn from his reading of Poe, Flaubert, and his own interior visions.

Redon worked first in charcoal and lithography — his famous 'Noirs' — building mysterious depths from gradations of black. In his later color work, he applied pastels and oils in luminous, vibrant passages that seem to glow from within.