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Title: Portrait of a Blonde Girl, Jeanne Roberte de Domecy, 1905 (Odilon Redon)

Inventory number: K-176
Size/material: 54.4 × 41 cm/pastel, charcoal, and Conté crayon on paper

Characteristics: signed, dated, and titled on the front left: "Jeanne Roberte 1905 Odilon Redon"

Porträt eines Mädchens mit blonden Haaren und einer Schleife, in einem dunklen Hintergrund, mit sanften Lichtakzenten.

Odilon Redon, Portrait d'une Fillette Blonde, Jean Roberte de Domecy, 1905

A major commission laid the foundation for the close relationship between Odilon Redon and the de Domecy family. Around 1900, the artist created one of his most important series of works for their castle in Burgundy, France. Five years later, Redon drew the family’s young daughter, Jeanne Roberte, on several occasions. This portrait is not a traditional child’s portrait that depicts character or social status. Instead, the girl appears like a vision: she emerges from impenetrable darkness, with light and shadow partially dissolving her contours. Her serious gaze is directed into the void; the emphasized asymmetries of her face lend Jeanne Roberte a mystical, almost supernatural presence. In this way, Redon revisits the visual world of his famous “Noirs,” in which light and darkness became a mirror of psychological and spiritual experiences. With his ambiguous body of work, the French artist ranks among the most unconventional figures of early modernism and is a key figure in Symbolism, a movement that explores the hidden and the unconscious. (SW)

Summary of Provenance

The pastel portrait dated 1905, *Portrait d’une Fillette blonde, Jeanne Roberte de Domecy*, was created by Odilon Redon in 1905 on commission from his patron and collector, Baron Robert de Domecy (1867–1946) of Sermizelles, France. The subject is the baron’s daughter, Jeanne Roberte de Domecy. A letter from Camille Redon to Mme. Andries Bonger in Amsterdam, dated July 3, 1905, confirms that Baron Robert de Domecy acquired the pastel from Odilon Redon in June 1905. The portrait was initially owned by the baron, then by the de Domecy family, and has been in a private collection since 1992. On June 27, 1995, the work was acquired by Heidi Horten at the Sotheby’s auction “Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, Part I.”

+ PROVENANCE

1905 Odilon Redon
June 1905Baron Robert de Domecy (1862–1946), Château de Domecy-sur-le-Vault in Sermizelles, France; acquired from Odilon Redon
Since 1946 Domecy family, France
 Private collection
1994 Private Collection, Courtesy of Marc de Montebello, New York
June 27, 1995 Sotheby’s London, “Impressionist and Modern Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture,” Lot 15
1995 Heidi Horten
2022 HGH Endowment Foundation

 

+ LITERATURE/ARCHIVES

Alec Wildenstein, Odilon Redon, Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Drawings, Volume I: Portraits and Figures, Wildenstein Institute, Paris, 1992, p. 286, no. 725

Provenance: Robert de Domecy, France – De Domecy Family, France – Private Collection, 1992.9

Odilon Redon. Prince of Dreams, 1840–1916, The Art Institute of Chicago (June 29–September 18, 1994); Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Oct. 21, 1994–Jan. 15, 1994); Royal Academy of Arts, London (Feb. 17–May 21, 1995), Chicago 1994, Cat. 141, p. 446, Fig. 26, p. 367