Parsifal — About This Work
Odilon Redon, 1891
About the Work
Redon’s Parsifal takes its title from the medieval Grail hero whose story was transformed into an opera by Richard Wagner. Rather than narrating an episode, Redon isolates a visionary head, allowing the literary and musical association to become a point of departure for an image of inward attention.
The work belongs to the period in which Redon was still strongly associated with the dark graphic works he called his noirs. His charcoal drawings and lithographs used deep blacks, suspended forms and ambiguous spaces to suggest mental and imaginary worlds rather than ordinary appearances.
Here the face emerges from darkness with an almost disembodied presence. The economy of the image gives it its intensity: very little is described, yet the combination of shadow, profile and title turns the figure into something between portrait, apparition and symbol.
The Work
Artist: Odilon Redon
Title: Parsifal
Date: 1891
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 30 × 40 cm portrait frame.
The complete artwork is reproduced at Original Scale without cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; Enhanced Matte + Moth-Eye.
Why Original Scale?
Most art-print shops offer the same image in a choice of Small, Medium and Large sizes. We take a different approach. For each edition, we begin with the recorded dimensions of the original work and reproduce the complete image at that scale, preserving its proportions and avoiding enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion.
Source: Cleveland Museum of Art, Open Access / CC0.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
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