Colorful drawings by French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon have emerged beneath three of his murals at Fontfroide Abbey, an 11th-century monastery in Narbonne, France. Concealed since 1911, the sketches were discovered earlier in 2026 when conservators removed the mural panels for the first time, preparing them for a Paris exhibition.
The three works—Day, Night, and Silence—had decorated the abbey's library. Some of the underlying drawings resemble figures in the completed murals, but they are smaller and more colorful. Their purpose remains uncertain: researchers are considering whether they were preparatory studies or an abandoned attempt at a fresco painted directly on the wall.
The abbey's director strongly favors the idea that Redon made the sketches during a ten-day stay in March 1910 to visualize his paintings in the renovated library. Redon was producing the murals in Paris for his friend and patron Gustave Fayet, who had purchased the former abbey in 1908. Fayet financed renovations intended to transform the medieval religious setting into a modern creative space, including a rebuilt church with art nouveau stained-glass windows.
The murals are now among 86 Redon works exhibited at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris in “Gustave Fayet: Collector-Designer.” The exhibition explores Fayet's legacy through more than 250 works from his former collection and 374 of his own creations. It closes on March 8, 2027, after which the murals will return to their original locations. Visitors have only until March to view the exposed drawings before the panels conceal them once more.
