While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt.

His artistic career was interrupted in 1870 when he joined the army to serve in the Franco-Prussian War. The young Bertrand-Jean Redon acquired the nickname "Odilon" from his mother Odile. (His younger brother Gaston Redon would become a noted architect.

Bertrand-Jean Redon better known as Odilon Redon (April 20 1840 – July 6 1916) was a French symbolist painter printmaker draughtsman and pastellist.