1896
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
To All Appearances, It Was a Hand of Flesh and Blood Just Like My Own is a 1896 by Odilon Redon, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a floating, ghostly hand against a dark, cloudy background. The fingers look almost real, but the edges blur into shadows. Redon made this as part of a series based on a spooky 1859 novel. The book’s eerie mood inspired him to create images that feel like half-remembered dreams. He worked closely with a printer to get the soft, smoky effect. If you like this, check out the technique called *sfumato*—it’s how artists blend tones to make things look hazy.
Odilon Redon was a voracious reader of contemporary literature, and such texts often influenced his art. This series was inspired by The Haunted and the Haunters, an 1859 novel by British writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Redon’s prints capture the book’s mysterious tone and emphasis on the supernatural through vague but evocative imagery that sometimes borders on abstraction. By this time a seasoned expert in lithography, the artist collaborated with master printer Auguste Clot. Their combined technical skills allowed for the rich tonal variation seen here, made by turning Redon’s lithographic…
One of Redon's greatest patrons, the occultist René Philipon, commissioned this portfolio as a supplement for his French translation of Bulwer-Lytton's The Haunted and the Haunters.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Born Bertrand-Jean Redon on 20 April 1840 in Bordeaux, the artist adopted the name Odilon from his mother, Marie-Odile.
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