ABSTRACT
‘The sense of mystery lies in always being in the equivocal, in double and triple aspects, in the surmisal of aspects, forms which will come into being, or which will exist in accordance with the state of mind of the spectator.' 'Suggestion', 'mystery', 'dream'. These key concepts of symbolist aesthetics are crucial also for Redon's art. Perhaps more than any other artist of his time Odilon Redon linked the related worlds of graphic and literary symbolism. In the spirit of symbolism, Redon, although he admired Pissarro, objected to the literalism of the impressionists: his strictures on 'the low-vaulted edifice' of their art matched Gauguin's charge that they 'neglected the mysterious centres of thoughts'. Van Gogh's brief two years in Paris coincided with the emergence of literary symbolism; but though pictorial symbolism was nascent it was not yet altogether evident.
