Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010977Quasimodo
by Odilon Redon
About the Artwork
The nineteenth-century French artist Odilon Redon was known for works defined by their darkness—both the black materials he used and the mood of his fantastical themes. This drawing depicts Quasimodo, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but does not directly relate to the text. Redon layered and rubbed away charcoal marks to create the indeterminate space behind the pair.
Inscriptions
signed, lower left, in black ink: ODILON REDON
Provenance
?-?: Marcel Lecomte [1900-1966], Paris 1997: (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 11, 1997, no. 74) by 1999: (Galerie Ronny van de Velde, Antwerp) after 1999-before 2002: Private Collection, Paris, France 2002: (Galerie Eric Coatalem, Paris, sold to Eugene Thaw, New York) 2002-2018: Eugene Thaw [1927–2018], New York 2018: (sale, Christie’s, New York, November 12, 2018, no. 160) 2019: (sale, Christie’s, New York, May 14, 2019, no. 116, sold to a private collector) 2019: private collection 2019-2020: (Jill Newhouse, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 2020-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Collecting Dreams: Odilon Redon. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19, 2021-January 23, 2022). Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
- Date
- c. 1875–80
- Medium
- charcoal with fabricated black chalk and touches of white and gray gouache on gray wove paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 36.8 x 32.9 cm (14 1/2 x 12 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 2020.63
More by Odilon Redon in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010977
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