I saw a flash of light, large and pale
Original title: I saw a flash of light, large and pale
kurzbeschreibung
Created by Odilon Redon in 1896, this lithograph presents a bare interior with a staircase, floorboards, and masonry. It belongs to the series Les Ténèbres (The Darknesses) and revolves around the experience of brightness amid darkness.
Description
Light falls in from the upper left, drawing the eye across the finely graded wooden floor, its gray tones interlocking with the vertical stripes of the left wall. On the right, a staircase with a wooden railing rises, leaning slightly to the left. At the back, a dark passage opens onto emptiness. The brightness from above models shadows on floor and wall and brings out the textures of the surfaces.
Context
This 1896 lithograph comes from the portfolio Les Ténèbres, a six-part series devoted to the alternation of darkness and light. During this phase, Redon turned increasingly to black-and-white printmaking, shaped by Symbolism and literature. He took the titles of the sheets from poetic sources, here a quotation from Victor Hugo's Les Contemplations.
Impact
The viewer is drawn into a quiet, almost reverent mood. The interplay of light and shadow gives the room a mysterious depth that invites lingering.
Technique
For this sheet, Redon used lithography to achieve delicate gray gradations and soft contrasts. The print on paper measures 22.9 x 16.9 cm in the image area and shows his characteristic approach: spare in detail and concentrated on tonal values.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)