Auricular Cell (Cellule auriculaire)

Odilon Redon, whose enigmatic, haunting works exemplify the dreamlike themes and emotional emphasis of Symbolism, produced almost two hundred lithographs. Many of them capture the moody, dark tonalities of his charcoal drawings, which he called noirs. Here, a strange figure in profile, with a curiously enlarged ear—a being possibly inspired by Francisco Goya, whom Redon greatly admired—peers from within a medallion.

Auricular Cell was included in The Original Print, a series of portfolios of prints by various avant-garde artists published to promote the revival of lithography and highlight its creative impact. All the works in the publication were “original prints,” a term that became popular during the second half of the nineteenth century to describe multiple, original works of art. Print publishers used it to distinguish artists’ prints, for which an artist creates an original composition, from “reproductive” prints, which are reproductions of existent works in other mediums.