Vase of Flowers

Redon played a major role in the revival of pastel in France in the late 19th century. Though he had worked almost exclusively in black and white throughout his youth—using charcoal and lithography—the change to color that he made around 1890 signified a shift from asceticism to sensuality. He wrote to his friend, the collector Adries Bonger, “Pastel keeps me going, both materially and morally; it makes me feel young again.” He began making still lifes in pastel as a way of mastering color, but he found they ignited his imagination; he spoke of them as representing “the meeting points of two shores: representation and memory.”