Is This the Ultimate Halloween Artist?

What’s your Halloween ideal: Alfred Hitchcock or Wes Craven? If you pick the Master of Suspense over Nightmare on Elm Street, then I have the ultimate Halloween artist for you: Odilon Redon. The late 19^th century French Symbolist painter depicted some of the most disturbing images ever made. As described by Dario Gamboni in The Brush and the Pen: Odilon Redon and Literature, Redon found inspiration in haunting tales of literature, especially those of Edgar Allan Poe, who is the unofficial poet laureate of Halloween. If you’ve never heard of Odilon Redon or seen his work, Halloween is the perfect time to discover this artist so unforgettable it’s spooky. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Is This the Ultimate Halloween Artist?"

[Image: Odilon Redon. The Tell-Tale Heart (detail), 1883.]

[Many thanks to The University of Chicago Press for providing me with a review copy of The Brush and the Pen: Odilon Redon and Literature by Dario Gamboni (revised and updated edition; translated from the French by Mary Whittall).]