The dark side of nature : science, society, and the fantastic in the work of Odilon Redon
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The dark side of nature : science, society, and the fantastic in the work of Odilon Redon
（Refiguring modernism / a series edited by Linda Dalrymple Henderson ... [et al.], 3）
Pennsylvania State University Press, c2005
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-221) and index
"Selected bibliography": p. [223]-242
Description and Table of Contents
Description
"The artist . . . will always be a special, isolated, solitary agent with an innate sense of organising matter." -Odilon Redon
"Disturbing," "hallucinatory"-words that evoke pathology rather than history- have long framed our understanding of Odilon Redon (1840-1916), a French artist admired by the Surrealists as a precursor in their exploration of the irrational. In this book, Barbara Larson takes a radically different view of Redon, one that does not attempt to deny him melancholia but does go a long way toward dismantling the paradigm that treats the cult of the irrational as the essential condition of his work. Larson instead contends that Redon should be seen as a gifted mediator of a context in which new scientific ideas mingled with the fears of social and racial decadence widespread in France after the debacle of the Franco-Prussian War.
Larson begins by investigating Redon's early years in the Bordeaux region, where he met Armand Clavaud, a botanist who encouraged his interest in the mixture of botany, geology, zoology, and landscape studies then called Naturalism. Subsequent chapters integrate Redon's concentration upon black-and-white graphic media and his absorption of Darwin's teachings and new trends in physiology, psychology, and microbiology. All this enables Larson to offer insightful readings of Redon's predilection for bizarre, polymorphous forms.
The Dark Side of Nature demonstrates that, at least insofar as Redon is concerned, late-nineteenth-century science meant not positivistic engagement with a stable material world, but rather the exploration of vast "invisible" realms, from microbes to electricity. With its clear exposition of scientific thought, Larson's book will undoubtedly make a significant contribution not only to Redon studies but also to the interdisciplinary study of art and science.
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Science and Romantic Naturalism in the Early Work of Redon: 1855-1870
2. Nationalism, Naturalism, Fantastique Reel
3. Evolution and Degeneration
4. The Microbe
5. Cosmos
6. The Unconscious Mind and the Dream
7. Scientific Fantasy in Context
8. The Natural, the Spiritual, and the Ideal: The 1890s
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
