Identification and Creation Object Number 1929.54

© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Gallery Text
This early drawing by Redon depicts a figure from a
Gascon folktale, a giant called Drac who is endowed
with supernatural powers. Since the escape of his
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beloved, whom he had held captive, the giant
perpetually scours a lake in search of her. Here, the
cliffs and cloud visible in the background are almost
dwarfed by the giant, who walks across the surface of
the lake. He wears a Phrygian cap, which is associated
with antiquity but may also symbolize the pursuit of
liberty in revolution-era France. The motif of the giant
also makes reference to evolutionary theories that
associated the origins of the indigenous French race
with the Cro-Magnon man, who was believed to be
taller than contemporary man because of the larger
size of his skull.
Identification and Creation
Object Number
1929.54
People
Odilon Redon, French (Bordeaux France 1840 - 1916
Paris France)
Title
Allegorical Figure (The Giant)
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
19th-20th century
Culture
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French
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Graphite on cream wove paper, darkened
Dimensions
24.4 x 28 cm (9 5/8 x 11 in.)
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Philip
Hofer
Accession Year
1929
Object Number
1929.54
Division
European and American Art
Contact
[email protected]
Publication History
Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg
Museum of Art, Harvard University Press (Cambridge,
MA, 1940), no. 719, fig. 385
Sven Sandström, Le Monde Imaginaire d'Odilon Redon
(London, England, 1955), pp. 37-38, repr. p. 37, fig. 27
Visionaries and Dreamers, exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery
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of Art (Washington, D.C, 1956), p. 10, no. 62
Klaus Berger, Odilon Redon: Fantasy and Colour,
McGraw-Hill Book Company (New York, Toronto,
London, 1965), p. 235, no. 729
Sarah Whitfield, The Academic Tradition: An Exhibition
of Nineteenth-century French Drawings, exh. cat.,
Indiana University Art Museum (Bloomington, IN, 1968),
no. 84, repr.
Odilon Redon et les Problèmes de L'imagination dans
la Peinture (I), Bijutsushi (March 1972), vol. 21, no. 4, pp.
119-142 + 162-63
Eric M. Zafran, Master Drawings from Titian to Picasso:
The Curtis O. Baer Collection, exh. cat., High Museum
of Art (Atlanta, GA, 1985), p. 146, cat. no. 85, repr.
Alec Wildenstein, Odilon Redon: Catalogue raisonné de
l'oeuvre peint et dessiné, Wildenstein Institute (Paris,
1992-1998), vol. 1, p. 231, no . 587, repr.
Stephen F. Eisenman, The Temptation of Saint Redon:
Biography, Ideology, and Study in the Noirs of Odilon
Redon, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, 1992), pp.
118 + 130 + 132, repr. p. 132
Barbara Larson, "Odilon Redon: Science and Fantasy in
the Noirs" (1996), pp. 43 - 44 + 372, repr. p. 372
Barbara Larson, The Dark Side of Nature: Science,
Society, and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon,
Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park,
PA, 2005), p. 62, fig. 52
Exhibition History
The Academic Tradition: An Exhibition of NineteenthCentury French Drawings arranged by the Indiana
University Art Museum , Indiana University Art Museum,
Bloomington, 06/19/1968 - 08/11/1968
Flowers of Evil: Symbolist Drawings, 1870–1910,
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Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/21/2016 08/14/2016
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff
but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently
revised and enhanced. For more information please
contact the Division of European and American Art at
[email protected]
Generated on February 16, 2017 at 08:30am
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