A La Vieillesse 1886

Odilon Redon made this lithograph, "A La Vieillesse," using a stone matrix, grease, and acid. This wasn't exactly an everyday process, but it wasn't the specialized world of oil painting either. The lithographic crayon, or "tusche," allowed for a range of marks, from delicate lines to broad, shaded areas. You can see how the grainy texture gives the portrait a misty, ethereal quality, almost as if the figure is fading into the paper. Redon embraced the printmaking medium, producing multiple copies and making his work accessible to a wider audience, outside of traditional art patronage circles. In the 19th century, printmaking was linked to ideas of democratization, connecting the artist's hand to the reproduction process. There's an inherent tension in this artwork between its technical reproducibility, and the deeply felt emotion that it conveys. Ultimately, understanding this lithograph requires us to consider not just the image itself, but the context in which it was created. This challenges the traditional art historical distinctions between fine art and the more democratic realm of printmaking.