Animals of the Sea

Odilon Redon painted Animals of the Sea with oil on canvas, and right away I’m intrigued by how the forms seem to emerge from a hazy, dreamlike state. It’s a process of letting go, of allowing shapes to suggest themselves. The textures in this piece are really something else! In the lower-left corner, there's this mass of layered brushstrokes, built up like a collage almost, where the paint is thick and juicy. You can see the clear influence of Impressionism, but also the emerging trends of modernism in the way Redon uses non-naturalistic colour. It is like an underwater explosion of colour and form. Look at how the colors blend and bleed into one another, creating a sense of movement and fluidity, like the ocean itself is shifting and changing before your eyes. It reminds me a little of how Joan Miró worked, with these biomorphic shapes floating in space. But Redon has a kind of melancholy that’s all his own, and reminds you that art is always a conversation across time and perspectives.