The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Parsifal

Parsifal

1892
(French, 1840–1916)
printer

Becquet

(French)
France, 19th-20th century
lithograph
Image: 32.2 x 24.2 cm (12 11/16 x 9 1/2 in.)
Gift of Ralph King 1925.21
Catalogue raisonné: Mellerio 116
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

When Redon was working on this lithograph, he discovered a flaw in the stone and started over. He reused rather than discarding the original stone for The Druidess, another print.

Description

Like many artists of the time, Odilon Redon drew inspiration from 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and explored his music throughout various media. Here, Redon depicted Parsifal, the heroic knight after whom Wagner titled an 1882 opera centered on a search for the Holy Grail. The print’s murky tones combine with Parsifal’s vacant stare to create an aura of mystery. The print was the first given to the museum by Ralph King, a founding trustee and a Redon enthusiast known among New York City gallerists in the 1920s for his tendency to purchase their entire inventories of the artist’s work.
  • ?-1925
    Ralph King [1855-1926], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1925
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Catalogue of an exhibition of the art of lithography: commemorating the sesquicentennial of its invention, 1798-1948. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 11, 1948-January 2, 1949. Mentioned: p. 58 archive.org
  • Collecting Dreams: Odilon Redon. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19, 2021-January 23, 2022).
    Generous Donors: A Tribute to The Print Club of Cleveland. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991).
    Odilon Redon: Dream Creatures and Anemones. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 21-October 14, 1984).
    Charles Meryon, Odilon Redon, and Rodolphe Bresdin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1, 1978-April 1, 1979).
    French Art Since Eighteen Hundred. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 8-December 8, 1929).
  • {{cite web|title=Parsifal|url=false|author=Odilon Redon, Becquet|year=1892|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1925.21