Closed Eyes (1890): Art, History and Details

Closed Eyes (1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); Becquet (French).

The work and its context

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

Odilon Redon explored the image of an androgynous figure with closed eyes in several of his works. He saw the expression as representative of a meditative shift inward and away from the constraints of modern society. By drawing lightly on a lithographic stone, Redon made faint lines that subtly modeled and shaded the head and shoulders while contrasting with the more sketchily drawn, inexplicable landscape in the foreground. Part of the Print Club of Cleveland’s early gift of lithographs by Redon to the museum, this impression is a unique trial proof, printed while the artist was collaborating with master printer Becquet to assess the composition’s progress.

Object facts

• Title: Closed Eyes
• Date: 1890
• Creator attribution: Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916); Becquet (French)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: lithograph on China paper laid on wove paper
• Dimensions: Image: 31.2 x 24.2 cm (12 5/16 x 9 1/2 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lithograph
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1927.306

A detail from the museum

Despite its androgynous look, this figure has been identified as a portrait of Redon´s wife, Camille Falte.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• "'La Rêverie esthétique': Symbolist Works on Paper." Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin43, no. 1 (Summer 1988): 3-47.
• Catalogue of an exhibition of the art of lithography: commemorating the sesquicentennial of its invention, 1798-1948. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 11, 1948-January 2, 1949. Published as: Yeux clos.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.