Le Buddha (The Buddha)

Growing up on his father's isolated estate in Bordeaux, France, Odilon Redon said he sought out the shadows. While other artists were busy with oil color, Redon expressed his fantastical imaginings in black and white lithographs because they allowed him the moody, luminous look of charcoal. A gift of Gustave Flaubert's Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874) proved a goldmine for Redon. It inspired three series of lithographs and this print, which shows a shadowy figure enveloping what could be a black sun pushing out the day. Redon's goal was to suggest, not illustrate, a text's meaning. The printed verse comes from Flaubert's Buddha: They led me into the schools / I knew more than the professors.