Quasimodo — About This Work
Odilon Redon, c. 1875–80
About the Work
Two dark heads emerge from a worked, uncertain space. Redon gives the charcoal a dense atmosphere, with lighter touches helping forms appear without making their surroundings fully explicit.
The title identifies Quasimodo, the central figure of Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The museum stresses that the drawing does not illustrate a particular passage, leaving its relationship with the book open rather than strictly narrative.
Layering and rubbing away charcoal give the background an unsettled surface. The figures seem held within that changing material, inviting attention to the image's mood without requiring a single explanation for the encounter.
The Work
Artist: Odilon Redon
Title: Quasimodo
Date: c. 1875–80
Medium: Charcoal with fabricated black chalk and touches of white and gray gouache on gray wove paper
Recorded dimensions: 32.9 × 36.8 cm (W × H)
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 2020.63
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 40 × 50 cm Classic Frame, portrait.
The complete artwork is reproduced at its recorded scale, subject only to negligible whole-pixel rounding, without enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area accommodates the artwork within the framed presentation and is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; or 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: Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund. 2020.63.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
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