Silence
Odilon Redon
Silence

Gallery J
French Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings

Galleries J and K were dominated by the work of Odilon Redon, an artist Kuhn and Davies encountered in Europe and decided to "feature big" at the Armory Show (Brown, Story 78). Although a full room was given to Redon's work at the Salon d'Automne in 1904, and he was recognized as an influence on Nabis artists like Maurice Denis, he was still virtually unknown in the United States. Approximately 38 works by Redon hung in Gallery J, primarily his later work, which reflected a shift toward pastels and oils. Lillie Bliss, encouraged by Davies, purchased Roger and Angelica and Silence (left), both of which are now in the Museum of Modern Art. Redon's symbolist figures and landscapes reminded many of Davies' own work, which may have been one reason why he chose to concentrate on them in the show. Redon was well received, both critically and financially.

A number of drawings by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes joined Redon's work in Gallery J. Many were studies for his murals in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Puvis de Chavannes was primarily a symbolist painter, which explains his appeal to Davies, but he is also cited as an important influence on post-impressionist artists like Gauguin, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

An unintentional focus of Gallery J was the work of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, a Portugese artist recently rediscovered and shown at the Corcoran Gallery, the Arts Club in Chicago, and the AXA Gallery in New York (1999-2000), but still relatively unknown in the canon of modern art. At the Armory Show, Sousa Cardoso's works were seen as a tamer version of the methods other modern artists used. As American critics and art historians gained more knowledge of the major artists and schools of modern art, he was forgotten as his work appeared merely derivative. Arthur Jerome Eddy, noted for his purchase of Duchamp's work, bought three of Souza Cardoso's paintings, and his four other paintings sold as well.

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