Charcoal drawings with religious themes by Odilon Redon are multilayered in both composition and technique, heightening the mysticism of the motif and sometimes even surpassing it. This is certainly true of Religion and Temple with Barbarian Idols, which ended up in the Van Gogh Museum via Andries Bonger’s collection. The spatial effect of these two drawings is complex and impenetrable, with the result that viewers lose themselves in another dimension, far from the visible world.
The technique is also difficult to fathom. As he did in his earlier drawings, the artist applied countless layers of black and brown oiled charcoal. This method explains the dozens of pinholes at the edges of both drawings. Redon seems to have pinned up the sheets again and again in order to apply fixative, which, after drying, allowed him to go on drawing without smudging his work. By applying black pastel over the greyish and brown oiled charcoal in Temple, he made the subtly drawn figures more distinguishable in the darkness of the temple’s arches . In some places the multilayered charcoal can no longer be seen beneath the black pigment of the pastel, but it is precisely these concealed passages that Redon felt added depth to the image and enhanced its spiritual dimension.
Detail of cat. 19
In addition to applying new layers, Redon created sparse lighting effects in the drawings by removing some of the drawing material. In Religion, the subtle tree that emerges at the bottom of the sheet is the result of Redon’s use of a fine needle to lift some of the drawing material. He made the mysterious patterns that wind across the bottom of the image by using his fingers moistened with fixative to dab away the charcoal. By drastically erasing the charcoal in a couple of carefully chosen places in Temple, Redon produced a dramatic contrast of light and dark, which is highly reminiscent of the etchings by Rembrandt that he so admired .
Redon owned a large collection of photographic reproductions of works by Rembrandt and seized every opportunity to study the master’s work. In the correspondence between Redon and Bonger, the subject of Rembrandt often came up. Indeed, Redon’s perception of Holland largely coincided with his admiration of the Old Master, whose temperament and talent he saw as inextricably linked to his native northern climate. Bonger sent Redon a number of reproductions for his collection.
In response to such a delivery, Redon explained in 1895 how his appreciation of Rembrandt was founded primarily on the ‘moral life’ with which he managed to imbue his shadows. Redon wrote: ‘Thank you for sending this Rembrandt, a work of old age, no doubt, but still beautiful. It goes to expand my collection, to which you have already contributed. I often look at it. Rembrandt, along with Leonardo, is the greatest. He gave shadow a moral life, as Michelangelo did in statuary. And everything that has come of chiaroscuro since is owing to him. He is one of the very greatest’. When he sold Temple to Bonger in November 1902, Redon described the work in his account book as a ‘chiaroscuro drawing’, and that expression, by his own account, could only have come from Rembrandt. Thus Redon must have thought that the ‘moral’ importance of this drawing derived primarily from the abstract interplay of light and dark, and only secondarily from the imaginary scene of ‘barbarian’ idols, demons and priests in a dark temple. These images, which are difficult to place – seemingly both churchly and pagan – heighten the mystical sensation created by the dramatic effects of light, without being anchored in the Bible or the Christian tradition, or even a specific religion.
Religion, on the other hand, offers clear points of reference to the Bible. From the 1890s on, the artist increasingly made use of iconography rooted in the Christian tradition. This made his drawings somewhat more accessible and therefore recognizable to a broader public. Thus the ‘mystic veil’ could very well be the sudarium that Veronica used to wipe the perspiration from Christ’s face during his painful climb of Golgotha. The composition comprising a picture within a picture is, moreover, in keeping with the pictorial tradition of this motif, as is apparent from a comparison with, for example, a French baroque painting by Philippe de Champaigne (1602–1674) . But why did Redon choose to portray the face of a hollow-eyed saintly woman and not that of Christ himself? And what does the tree in the foreground stand for? The later resurrection? Redon never opted for a literal borrowing from the Bible. He selected only certain elements for his highly personal compositions, which portray a mystical state of mind or vision rather than a religious narrative.
Andries Bonger managed to acquire the charcoal drawing in 1903 at the sale of Edmond Deman, the Belgian publisher and collector of Redon’s work. He wrote to the artist immediately, to tell him that he had acquired the ‘very beautiful’ drawing Mysticité, but Redon had no idea which work Bonger was referring to. He therefore suspected that Deman had given it that title himself. It was not until 1905, when Bonger sent the artist a high-quality reproduction that he had commissioned from the firm of Van Meurs, that the penny dropped. Redon was wildly enthusiastic about this unexpected reunion with a drawing from an earlier period. In 1905 the artist was working mainly in colour, and the noirs were a closed chapter within his oeuvre. He was impressed by the quality of the isography, which to him perfectly captured the tone and texture of the drawing paper and the softness of the original, and even exuded its spirituality. The artist was so pleased with it that he sent Van Meurs an enthusiastic letter, which the dealer conveniently quoted in an article on his isographies. Redon saw the sale and exhibition of such artistic reproductions as an opportunity to bring his rare early drawings, which lay hidden in various private collections, into circulation again, thus rescuing them from obsolescence and oblivion. At Bonger’s request, Redon subsequently gave the work a new title: Voile mystique (Mystical Veil).
That these drawings held a mystical attraction for Bonger emerges from a letter to the artist. He had added Temple to a ‘magnificent ensemble’ of Redon’s noirs in his study, above the sofa. Even though the collector spent evening after evening with his Redons, he managed to discover something new every time he gazed at the ‘profound and mysterious’ temple.
Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho
2022