Christ (1887): Art, History and Details

Christ (1887) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); Lemercier & Cie..

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Odilon Redon's unusual depiction of a melancholy, beardless Christ uses the dramatic tonality of lithography to convey the figure's suffering. Redon drew parallel lines with a lithographic crayon and then scraped some of the material away to depict the angular forms of an oversized crown of thorns and the surrounding dreamlike space. Redon experimented with lithography and preferred it for its ability to produce the rich and evocative black seen here.

Object facts

• Title: Christ
• Date: 1887
• Creator attribution: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); Lemercier & Cie.
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: lithograph
• Dimensions: Sheet: 42.9 x 36.1 cm (16 7/8 x 14 3/16 in.); Image: 33.4 x 27.3 cm (13 1/8 x 10 3/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1956.298

A detail from the museum

Odilon Redon believed that black was an agent of the spirit and created nearly 200 monochromatic lithographs that evoke a mysterious and dreamlike world.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.