Specialists have discovered colourful drawings beneath three murals at Fontfroide Abbey in Narbonne, France. Odilon Redon drew them directly on the library walls, where his finished paintings have hung since 1911. The murals, titled Day, Night and Silence, were removed for the first time this year for an exhibition in Paris.
Some of the newly revealed drawings resemble figures in the finished works, although they are smaller and more colourful. Researchers do not know whether Redon was testing ideas for the murals or attempting to paint directly on the walls. The abbey's director believes he probably made them during a ten-day stay in March 1910.
Redon's friend Gustave Fayet, an important art collector, bought the former monastery in 1908 and commissioned the murals. He wanted to turn the medieval religious building into a place for modern creativity. When Redon visited in 1910, the renovated library helped him imagine how his paintings would look there.
The three murals are now at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris for an exhibition about Fayet, which ends on 8 March 2027. Afterwards, they will return to their original positions. Visitors therefore have until March to see the wall drawings before they are hidden again.
