# Symbolic Head, in Post-Impressionism

Odilon Redon painted this in about 1890, aged about 45. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

From the museum's label:

> One of Redon’s favorite themes was a head depicted in profile, sometimes separated from the body to symbolize the spirit released from the material world. It also suggests a metaphor for abandoning physical reality for the inner realm of dreams, fantasy, and poetic reverie.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

[Read the full label](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/symbolic-head-cma-154283#about-work)

## The work

- Date: c. 1890
- Medium: oil on paper mounted on canvas
- Dimensions: Framed: 69 x 54.5 x 7.5 cm (27 3/16 x 21 7/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 53.3 x 38 cm (21 x 14 15/16 in.)
- Type: Painting
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1988.91
- Licence: CC0 1.0

## The artist

[Odilon Redon](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/odilon-redon), French, 1840–1916

Redon spent three decades working almost entirely in black: charcoal drawings he called his “noirs” and albums of lithographs peopled with floating eyes, strange plants and dreamlike heads, which made him a hero of the Symbolist writers.

7 works in the collection.

## Walk on

- [More by Odilon Redon](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/artist/odilon-redon?hang=749) (7 works)
- [More paintings of the 19th century](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/style/painting-19?hang=749) (432 works)
- [19th-century France](https://www.ochreeditions.com/galleries/era/19-france?hang=749) (237 works)

## Get it

- [Print this work](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/symbolic-head-cma-154283#print)
- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/745.jpg?dl=1
- [The work's page](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/symbolic-head-cma-154283)