"Parsifal / Druidess": Unfolding a Lithographic Metamorphosis by Odilon Redon Author(S): Dario Gamboni Source: the Art Bulletin, Vol

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"Parsifal / Druidess": Unfolding a Lithographic Metamorphosis by Odilon Redon Author(s): Dario Gamboni Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 89, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 766-796 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067360 . Accessed: 20/12/2013 12:05 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Art Bulletin. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.194.8.73 on Fri, 20 Dec 2013 12:05:06 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions a Parsifal / Druidess: Unfolding Lithographic Metamorphosis by Odilon Redon Dario Gamboni In an of ten one formal and semantic the of the former build 1879, with album prints and frontispiece level, gentleness en or a to tided Dans le r?ve ("In the Dream" "Dreaming"), Odilon ing counterpart the hardness of the latter. Redon started publishing lithographs. The album format This intuition of an intimate link between the two images and successful: three more followed was in an in proved congenial until, confirmed unexpected way when, 1976, Suzanne in 1886, the artist began issuing individual sheets with Profile Folds McCullagh and Inge Christine Swenson, two art histo ofLight (Fig. 18). In April 1891, a first catalog of Redon's rians working at the Art Institute of Chicago, discovered a lithographs was published by the Belgian lawyer,writer, and version o? Parsifal (Fig. 3) unmentioned inMellerio's catalog, critic Destr?e. He made a clear distinction between the and of which three have been A Jules only proofs preserved.6 isolated he introduced under minute of I plates, which the generic title comparison this unknown version (which will Pi?ces modernes but as "not regarded linked by any special henceforward call Parsifal I) with the impressions ofMellerio and the "in the author's in relationship," albums, which, mind, 116 (henceforward Parsifal IT) the Art Institute collection form that cannot be down led to was not an state of wholes, groupings broken without them conclude that it undescribed his these "Modern Pieces" num from a stone betraying thought."1 By then, the latter but had been "printed different and bered to must be a of eight lithographs. Redon continued produce al therefore first, rejected version the Parsifal as well as for and for that the reason for this bums, prints journals frontispieces subject." They supposed rejection In as a to must a a hori books. fact, his reputation lithographer continued have been flaw in the stone, "which created rest mainly on his albums, so much so that in 1898, while zontal black line through the entire composition, just above a new his preparing catalog of prints, the critic Andr? Mel Parsifal's brow," and they argued for the equal quality but two lerio asked him why he had produced isolated pieces. Redon divergent "conception and emotional impact" of the versions: a accents forms dramat replied somewhat angrily that he had made them like "every whereas harsh, broken light other artist from the and the Mellerio's in I the present past."2 ques ically Parsifal and makes hero appear "tormented by the the he seems in even illumi tion signaled that sequential character of albums, the his fate," merely "pensive" the soft, contrasts echoes and organized by Redon between the indi nation of Parsifal II vidual within were crucial to his to prints them, appreciation. Extending the comparison other Redon lithographs of an same made a Despite Redon's irritation, the insight provided by such the period, McCullagh and Swenson second, to even more remarkable that elements of I approach remains valuable. The 1885 album Homage Goya, discovery: Parsifal two recur in as can seen one two for instance, opens and closes with images that frame the Druidess, easily be when of the are as series and clearly conceived opposed and complemen compositions is turned upside down (Fig. 4). McCullagh and one a seen tary: the first (Fig. 20) shows male head, from the Swenson observed that the "apparently fortuitous assemblage on a with a on on front dark background, melancholic and search of lines Parsifal's white collar is found inverted the a Druidess's white headband." the ing expression, while female profile (Fig. 21), described by They proposed following as from the reconstruction of the from one to the the caption "severe and hard," detaches itself passage lithograph white sheet in the second one.3 other: "The priestess's profile is developed from the lighted area of Parsifal's and the shaft of him We may, however, also disagree with Destr?e's contention neck chin, light beside that are unrelated. On defines her and the side of his helmet is transformed Redon's individual prints mutually veil, her added that in some October 11, 1891, the writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, who had into elegant earring." They impres the of to and had become sions of "remnants of Parsifal's can be organized promotion Homage Goya Druidess, right eye Redon's critical received mail from the discerned at the bottom of the which now cor champion, artist, edge print," which he answered with a note of thanks written on the same responds to the horizontal black line observed inParsifal! In day: "My janitor brought me up thismorning a pretty roll other words, they suggested that after rejecting Parsifal I, once me Redon turned the stone down out the that, unfolded, confronted with the troubling fig upside and, leaving ures are one so you created. Ah! But they perfect Redons, the smaller part of the lithograph divided by the aberrant line, and and with his the other so transformed the into a new before strange gentle suffering arrow, larger part image, Druidess, to his and an terriblyanimal with her crude profile and her shiny eye. And returning initial composition creating entirely two three new version of on a new stone. the pale mystics!"4 This description identifies it, Parsifal II, to Mellerio's were editioned This is a to the prints, which, according catalog, strange procedure, hardly corresponding a from such a work. stones were in 1892: Parsifal (Fig. 1), Druidess (Fig. 2), and linear depic genesis expected Lithographic women canceled and after a run was com tion of two standing entitled Mystical Conversation? routinely regrained print Given the fact thatHuysmans received the three lithographs pleted, so the material loss represented by the failed Parsifal not to a this kind. Was in one roll, it is only logical that he should have discussed /was sufficient call for "recycling" of we them together, but his treatment of Parsifal and Druidess in Redon reluctant to lose the image completely? As shall same sentence them as a on a it would have been to transfer the the clearly considers pair see, easy imperfect image This content downloaded from 129.194.8.73 on Fri, 20 Dec 2013 12:05:06 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions UNFOLDING A LITHOGRAPHIC METAMORPHOSIS BY ODILON REDON 757 1 Odilon Redon, Parsifal [II], 1891, on China lithograph mounted ivory X X paper, 12M> 95/s in. (32.1 24.3 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago, the Stickney Collection, 1920.1695 (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by the Art Institute of Chicago) onto a new more outcome of two at the indications stone, and the obvious Parsifal identity of the figures stake, following version to Redon's are involved in the relation /is Parsifal II, which takes advantage of the rejected given by titles, genetic on it. additional transformation of I them. improve The Parsifal binding of Druidess must into the other, radically different image in its own In their brief therefore have attracted Redon right. Parsifals to refers to the hero of Rich article, McCullagh and Swenson rightly pointed other Parsifal unequivocally eponymous a new ard last musical drama. This work had been documented instances in which Redon "created wholly Wagner's pre from one in which he turned sented in in the the image another," including Bayreuth 1882, year preceding compos a er's and Redon had not seen he could an early etching of galloping rider (Fig. 5) into the vague death, although it, a woman the mean have read the and in he knew of its evocation of nude (Fig. 6), transforming libretto, any case, plot, into a hair after which was discussed and have been famil dering lines of clouds depiction of turning widely may already the on its side. saw such cases as "indicative of iar to him from Chr?tien de tale plate They Troyes's late-twelfth-century to see alternatives in and of his of Le conte du Graal ou le roman de Perceval. Redon's ability his creations chivalry to one form from Redon had reasons to be attracted to Music willingness pursue these visions, nurturing many Wagner. can even further in this had been to him from his and he another." One go and identify ability important early years, a element of Redon's and would write that he had been "born on a sound wave."7 One and willingness key theory practice we a meta and wrote music and of art.
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