The Cleveland Museum of Art

• Provenance
  Before 1925

  Possibly Gustave Fayet [1865-1925], Béziers

  Until 1954

  (Jacques Dubourg [1897-1981], Paris, sold to Knoedler & Co.)

  1954-1956

  (Knoedler & Co., New York, sold to Mildred Andrews Putnam)

  1956-1984

  Mildred Andrews Putnam [1890/92-1984], Cleveland, OH, by descent to her son, Peter Andrews Putnam

  1984-1987

  Peter Andrews Putnam [1925-1987], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

  1988-

  The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

  Provenance Footnotes

  1 The Wildenstein catalogue raisonné of Redon’s oeuvre lists “Gustave Fayet?” as the first owner of the CMA picture.  In 1980 Fayet, a painter who worked in a style similar to that of Redon, purchased the Abbe de Fontfroide, where he exhibited works from his collection, including Redon’s Day and Night.  The reasons for Wildenstein’s uncertainty concerning Fayet are unknown: it may be because there was little or no evidence that the CMA painting was present in the Abbe de Fontfroide, even though other works by Redon were know to have been displayed, or because Jacques Dubourg purchased other works from Fayet’s collection, but this possibility, too, was unsubstantiated.  

  2 Dubourg, an art dealer, sold the Redon to Knoedler & Co. on October 20, 1954.  The circumstances of Dubourg’s acquisition of the Redon are unknown.  It is possible that like a Redon pastel currently in the MFA Boston (64.2206), Symbolic Head was purchased by Dubourg from Fayet’s collection.  The MFA pastel may have been sold by Fayet’s son-in-law, Paul Bacou, directly to Dubourg, as that work was lent to an exhibition in 1938 by Bacou.  He may have had it in his possession by 1951, when was listed as the lender of a painting titled “Jeune Homme en Buste” to an exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville de Rennes, Les origines de l'art contemporain.  The dimensions of that work (51 x 39 cm) are very close to those of Symbolic Head (53 x 38 cm); however, the catalogue notes that it is signed in the lower right, while the Cleveland picture is signed in the lower left, although it possibly that this was recorded incorrectly.  

  3 Knoedler sold the Redon (stock number A5851) to Mildred Andrews Putnam on February 20, 1956.

  4 At the time of Putnam’s death on December 7, 1987, the Redon, along with four other paintings and two drawings, had been on loan to CMA.  After his death, these artworks were distributed from his estate and then given permanently to the Museum in the name of his mother’s fund.  
• Citations
  d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

  Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau [and] Rodolphe Bresdin. Garden City, N.Y.: Distributed by Doubleday, 1961.

  Wildenstein, Alec, and Odilon Redon. Odilon Redon: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992.

  d'Argencourt, Louise, Roger Diederen, and Alisa Luxenberg. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

  Berger, Klaus. Odilon Redon: Fantasy and Colour. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.

  Wildenstein, Alec, and Odilon Redon. Odilon Redon: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 130, Getty Research Institute.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 167, Getty Research Institute.

  Baltimore Museum of Art. If Wishes Could Buy: A Handlist of the Exhibition, October 4-November 6, 1955. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1955.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 130, Getty Research Institute.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 167, Getty Research Institute.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 157, Getty Research Institute.

  Wildenstein, Alec, and Odilon Redon. Odilon Redon: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1992.

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 167, Getty Research Institute

  Odilon Redon, Series IV Inventory Cards, M. Knoedler & Co. records, box 157, Getty Research Institute.

  Wildenstein, Alec, and Odilon Redon. Odilon Redon: cata

  Berger, Klaus. Odilon Redon: Fantasy and Colour. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1965. Reproduced: no. 82

  Wadsworth Atheneum, and Franklin Westcott Robinson. One Hundred Master Drawings from New England Private Collections: [Exhibition] Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., Sept. 5-Oct. 14, 1973 : Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Oct. 26-Dec. 3, 1973 : Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., Dec. 14, 1973-Jan. 25, 1974. Hanover, N.H.: Distributed by University Press of New England, 1973. Reproduced: p. 140

  Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1988." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXXVI, no. 2 (February, 1989):30-75. Reproduced: p. 63; Mentioned: p. 70, no. 97

  Wildenstein, Alec. Odilon Redon: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint et dessiné. Paris, France: Wildenstein Institute, 1992. Reproduced: no. 348, vol. I

  Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 190

  Druick, Douglas W. Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams, 1840-1916. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 1994.

  D' Argencourt, Louise, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: v. 2, p. 515-517

  Yamamoto, Atsuko, and Noriko Tsutatani. Rudon ten: zettai no tankyū = Odilon Redon : le souci de l'absolu. Japan: Chunichi Shimbun, 2002. Reproduced: p. 102; Mentioned p. 102-103

  Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p. 82; Reproduced: p. 83
• Exhibition History
  Odilon Redon - Le souci de l'absolu (Search for the Absolute). Shimane Art Museum, Matsue-shi, Japan (August 2-September 23, 2002); Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Gifu City, Japan (organizer) (October 8-December 8, 2002).

  The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).

  The Logic of Modern Art: An Exhibition Tracing the Evolution of Modern Painting from from Cézanne to 1960. Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO (1961).

  Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Rodolphe Bresdin. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1961-62).

  If Wishes Could Buy. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (1955).

  Les origines de l'art contemporain. Hôtel de Ville de Rennes, Le Mans, France (1951).
• Cite this Page
  {{cite web|title=Symbolic Head|url=false|author=Odilon Redon|year=c. 1890|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}