Odilon Redon was a French painter and graphic artist known for his work in Symbolism. He lived a retiring life first in Bordeaux and then Paris, where he worked exclusively in black and white mediums like charcoal drawings and lithographs, creating strange images of creatures and plants with human features. Redon remained unknown until mentioned in the 1884 novel A Rebours, associating him with the Decadent movement. In the 1890s, Redon turned to painting and revealed talent as a colorist, creating mythological scenes and flower paintings in radiant colors after undergoing a religious crisis and illness.