Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryFlower Clouds
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Find the two small figures in the boat, then let your eye move from the pale sail into the orange and violet clouds. Where do solid forms begin to dissolve?
Redon used pastel for this imagined voyage, placing a small boat beneath an expanse of glowing color. The passengers are only lightly described, while the sail and surrounding clouds occupy much of the picture. Color supplies an atmosphere that is easier to feel than to identify as a particular place or hour.
Pastel, with touches of stumping, incising, and brushwork, on blue-gray wove paper with multi-colored fibers altered to tan, perimeter mounted to cardboard · 44.5 × 54.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Post-Impressionism · Symbolism
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Flower Clouds
- Artist
- Odilon Redon French, 1840-1916
- Date
- c. 1903
- Medium
- Pastel, with touches of stumping, incising, and brushwork, on blue-gray wove paper with multi-colored fibers altered to tan, perimeter mounted to cardboard
- Dimensions
- 44.5 × 54.2 cm (17 9/16 × 21 3/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Through prior bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.