Decoration and symbolism in the late works of Odilon Redon

450 Pages·2017·6.89 MB·English

by  Abigail Eileen Yoder

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Fall 2013
Decoration and symbolism in the late works of
Odilon Redon
Abigail Eileen Yoder
University of Iowa
Copyright © 2013 Abigail Eileen Yoder
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2300
Recommended Citation
Yoder, Abigail Eileen. "Decoration and symbolism in the late works of Odilon Redon." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University
of Iowa, 2013.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.7cj02aye
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theHistory of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons
DECORATION AND SYMBOLISM IN THE LATE WORKS OF ODILON REDON
by
Abigail Eileen Yoder
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in Art History
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
December 2013

Thesis Supervisor: Professor Dorothy Johnson
Copyright by
ABIGAIL EILEEN YODER
2013
All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
_______________________
PH.D. THESIS
_______________
This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of
Abigail Eileen Yoder
has been approved by the Examining Committee
for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in Art History at the December 2013 graduation.
Thesis Committee: ___________________________________
Dorothy Johnson, Thesis Supervisor
___________________________________
Wallace Tomasini
___________________________________
Robert Rorex
___________________________________
John Beldon Scott
___________________________________
Wendelin Guentner
To my family

ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank a number of people who helped contribute to the completion
of this dissertation. First and foremost, I wish to thank my dissertation adviser and
mentor, Professor Dorothy Johnson, for her kind support throughout this process. Dr.
Johnson has continuously encouraged me during my research and writing, even when I
became discouraged. Her guidance has not only shaped this dissertation, but also has
helped me to become more confident in my scholarship in general. I am truly grateful for
her support and encouragement. I would also like to thank my other professors and
committee members. Professor Wallace Tomasini has provided invaluable insight, not
only on this dissertation but also throughout my graduate career. I am especially grateful
for his support and assistance as my graduate adviser. Professor Robert Rorex provided
some of the impetus for this project based on his comments on my Master’s thesis, so I
am exceedingly grateful for that, and for his kindness and humor throughout my time as a
graduate student. I wish to thank Professor John Beldon Scott for his kind support for my
dissertation project as well as for me as a graduate student. Professor Wendelin Guentner
provided valuable insights on my project from the beginning and I am thankful for her
assistance as well.
I also wish to thank my other professors for their guidance and support throughout
this process, especially Professor Julie Hochstrasser for being a willing sounding board

for my thoughts while I was researching. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my
undergraduate adviser, Professor Gregory Gilbert at Knox College. Professor Gilbert’s
enthusiasm in my first art history class is what led me to choose the major, and I have not
looked back since. It was in Professor Gilbert’s nineteenth-century art class that I first
discovered my love for Odilon Redon, and so I am grateful that he set me on this path.
My research for this topic would not have been possible if not for the generous
funding I received from the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History. I wish to
iii
thank everyone on the fellowship committee who supported me and gave me the
opportunity to pursue my research in France. I also received a considerable amount of
financial support from the University of Iowa Graduate College, including a T. Anne
Cleary International Dissertation Research Fellowship, which helped fund my first
research trip to Paris, as well as a summer fellowship that allowed me to travel to
Narbonne, France in 2011 for a rare opportunity to view Redon’s paintings at the Abbaye
de Fontfroide. That trip was invaluable to my research and I am incredibly grateful to the
Graduate College for providing me the opportunity to go.
While in Paris, I received the support of many people and I wish to thank them
here. Primarily, I would like to thank Stéphane Guégan and Marie-Pierre Salé at the
Musée d’Orsay for pointing me in the right direction to start my research. The staff in the
Centre de documentation at Orsay was also extremely helpful during my time there. I
would also like to thank Valérie Sueur-Hermel and the staff at the Bibliothèque Nationale
for assisting me with my research there. I wish to thank the staff at the Bibliothèque des
Arts Décoratifs for their assistance as well. I am grateful for the documents provided to
me by Liliane Lerable from the archives at Mobilier National & Manufactures Nationales
des Gobelins.
Throughout my dissertation process, my friends and family have been a constant
source of love, support, and kindness. I wish to thank a number of people, including
Ruben, Donna, and Christopher Carrillo, Shannon Cody, Betsey Kosier, Alice Phillips,
Sue and Dwight Smith, Amanda Strasik, and Hal and Anita Yeager. During my research
in France and my subsequent move to St. Louis, Missouri, Becky Johnson provided much
support and encouragement, as well as a few care packages that were greatly appreciated.
Above all, I wish to thank my dear friend and colleague Karissa Bushman. Karissa has
been a constant source of support throughout this process, and I cannot thank her enough
for her wisdom and humor over the last several years.
iv
I wish to thank my parents, Doug and Linda Yoder, and my brother Jeff for
everything they have done for me during my research and writing process. They have
provided constant encouragement, listening to me voice my excitement over the project
as well as vent my frustrations, and have never been anything less than fully supportive.
Finally, I thank my husband, Doug Smith, who has been nothing short of amazing
throughout this arduous process. He has been with me every step of the way, even
through troubled times, supporting me, helping me, and encouraging me as I slowly made
my way towards the end of this project. He has been my everything, and I am eternally
grateful.

v
ABSTRACT
From approximately 1900 until 1914, Odilon Redon worked almost exclusively
on decorative projects, both privately and publicly commissioned. Additionally, he
created numerous uncomissioned decorative works – highly ornamental paintings with
decorative subject matter that were conceived of by the artist himself as decorations. Yet
despite the fact that decorative works made up a significant portion of Redon’s late
oeuvre, he is rarely considered as a major figure within the decorative arts movement at
the turn of the century, unlike his contemporaries Paul Gauguin and the Nabis. His close
involvement with these artists, as well as his affiliation with a number of the same
important critics, makes his exclusion from discussion of the decorative revival all the
more surprising. There has been very little scholarship on Redon’s decorative works that
consider them in in relation to the international decorative movement. Nevertheless, his
late works actively engaged with the avant-garde aesthetic theories of the time. My
dissertation will place Redon in the context of the decorative and Symbolist art
movements by examining the profusion of decorative projects with which he was
involved during the last decades of his career. By considering important themes within
these movements, like elevation of craft arts, the encouragement of floral designs, the
revival of religious and mythological subject matter, and principles regarding the
unification of the arts, I argue that Redon warrants consideration as a peintre-décorateur

in fin-de-siècle France.
My first chapter introduces the idea of the decorative revival in the nineteenth
century, and considers the way the definition of the term “decorative” evolved during the
period. I also present the historiography of Redon scholarship, as it relates to his
decorative works. The second chapter examines the historical background of the
decorative and Symbolist movements in the nineteenth century. I focus first on the pan-
European decorative revival, especially in England and Belgium, then examine how this
vi
influenced French art. The Symbolist artistic movement developed simultaneously, and
as such, I will examine the ways in which the two movements overlapped. Finally, I
consider how Redon’s artistic development was affected in this aesthetic climate.
Subsequent chapters examine specific themes in Redon’s decorative oeuvre, and
how these related to ideas and undercurrents in the general decorative and Symbolist art
movements. Chapter three focuses on flowers and nature as decoration, exploring the
increase of floral imagery in both decoration and Symbolist painting, and how Redon
adapted his own artistic language from these influences. Chapter four examines the
revival of traditional imagery from religious and mythological subjects, as well as
occultist themes, and explores the way Redon used his decorative style to create new
symbolic meanings for these themes. Chapter five focuses on Redon’s murals at the
Abbaye de Fontfroide, in which I argue that they represent a modern Gesamtkunstwerk.
My final chapter underscores Redon’s place within the decorative and Symbolist
movements and examines the influence he exerted on his contemporaries through his use
of the decorative arts.

vii