Artwork
Flowers Fall and the Head of a Python Appears
Flowers Fall and the Head of a Python Appears is a print by the Impressionist artist Odilon Redon. It dates from 1896 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1896, this print by French Symbolist Odilon Redon combines a cascade of falling flowers with the emerging head of a python. The composition is rendered in muted tones of brown and gray, giving the scene a subdued, almost nocturnal atmosphere. The work exemplifies Redon’s turn away from his earlier monochrome “noirs” toward a more color‑inflected, imaginative visual language.
Subject & Meaning
The falling blossoms suggest a fleeting, perhaps fragile beauty, while the snake’s head, partially concealed in shadow, evokes mystery and latent danger.
The image juxtaposes delicate botanical forms with the threatening presence of a serpent, merging natural and mythic elements. The falling blossoms suggest a fleeting, perhaps fragile beauty, while the snake’s head, partially concealed in shadow, evokes mystery and latent danger. This contrast aligns with Symbolist interests in the unconscious, dream imagery, and the tension between the serene and the unsettling.
Technique & Style
Redon employed the print medium to achieve a soft, velvety surface, using subtle gradations of tone to model both flora and the reptilian head. The limited palette of browns and grays emphasizes tonal depth rather than vivid coloration, while delicate shading creates a sense of depth and ambiguity, characteristic of his late‑period pastels and oils adapted to printmaking.
History & Provenance
The work belongs to Redon’s mature period, when he abandoned the stark charcoal “noirs” of his early career for more chromatic approaches. Though specific ownership details are sparse, the piece has been catalogued among his Symbolist prints from the 1890s and has appeared in several exhibitions highlighting the artist’s exploration of mythic and organic motifs.
Artist & collection
Artist
Born Bertrand-Jean Redon on 20 April 1840 in Bordeaux, the artist adopted the name Odilon from his mother, Marie-Odile.
C'est le Diable
Les Sciapodes: La tete le plus bas possible, c'est le secret du bonheur! (The Skiapods: "The head as low as possible, that is the secret of happiness!")
Pélerin du monde sublunaire (Pilgrim of the sublunary world)
Passage d'une Ame (Passage of a Spirit)
Quasimodo
First a Pool of Water, Then a Prostitute, the Corner of a Temple, a Soldier's Face, a Chariot with Two White, Rearing Horses
Et celui qui était monté dessus se nommait la Mort (And his name that sat on him was Death)
Hommage à Tolstoï
After the Visit (Après sa visite)
Nada (Nothing)
The Man Was Alone in a Night Landscape
Oedipe chez le Sphinx