Art experts found colourful drawings at Fontfroide Abbey in Narbonne, France. The French artist Odilon Redon drew them directly on the library walls. Three of his large paintings covered the drawings. These paintings, called Day, Night and Silence, have been there since 1911.
This year, experts took the paintings off the walls for the first time. They moved them to Paris for an art show. Some hidden drawings look like parts of the finished paintings. But the drawings are smaller and have more colour.
No one knows exactly why Redon made the drawings. Perhaps he wanted to try his ideas on the walls. The abbey's director thinks he probably drew them during a ten-day visit in March 1910. His friend, the art collector Gustave Fayet, bought the abbey in 1908 and asked him to make the paintings.
The Paris show is at the Louis Vuitton Foundation until 8 March 2027. After the show, the paintings will return to the library. Visitors have until March to see the drawings before the paintings cover them again.
