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Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor)

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Look at the child’s face inside the dark hood, then follow the thin curved stalk down to the leaves at the bottom.

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A flower on a thin stalk carries a child’s round face where its blossom should be, wrapped in a dark hood like a petal. Redon drew it in charcoal and black crayon in 1880 and showed it two years later in Paris, in his second exhibition of drawings. It appears in writings by Émile Hennequin in 1882 and Joris-Karl Huysmans in 1883.

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Various charcoals, with touches of black chalk and black Conté crayon, stumping, incising and erasing, on yellowish cream wove paper altered to a golden tone · 40.4 × 33.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Post-Impressionism

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Details and source

Museum title
Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor)
Artist
Odilon Redon French, 1840-1916
Date
1880
Medium
Various charcoals, with touches of black chalk and black Conté crayon, stumping, incising and erasing, on yellowish cream wove paper altered to a golden tone
Dimensions
40.4 × 33.2 cm (15 15/16 × 13 1/8 in.)
Credit line
David Adler Collection
Image license
CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record
Art Institute of Chicago

Artist’s life 1840–1916

Post-Impressionism c. 1886–1905

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.

Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor) · Odilon Redon, 1880
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Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor), Odilon Redon

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