Rodolphe Bresdin: The Incorrigible Bohemian (2016)

The book is the first published English-language monograph on the distinguished French artist Rodolphe Brésdin. It contains a rigorous reappraisal of the artist’s work and new insights into his biography. Brésdin’s subtle artistry was appreciated during his lifetime by talented writers such as Théodore de Banville, Victor Hugo, and Charles Baudelaire, fellow members of the Paris bohemian circle. He was the mentor of Odilon Redon, who signed his work “pupil of Brésdin.” Redon remained a lifelong advocate of his teacher’s imaginative genius.

Brésdin’s life story is stranger and more compelling than those of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh: penniless throughout his life, a country boy uneasy in Parisian bohemia, he made an epic journey to Southern France and later, at the age of fifty, disastrously sailed to Canada with a wife and six children. They were rescued by Hugo and the bohemians, but this was followed by marital separation and his death in an attic room.

His work has sometimes been judged only by his two most famous pictures — The Good Samaritan and The Comedy of Death — however, all of Brésdin’s oeuvre is marked by fine sensitivity, skillfully depicting the natural world in a style ranging from delightfully sinister to wildly elemental fantasy.

Trevor Dance, a teacher by profession, has curated several art exhibitions. He also gives talks on art and artists for colleges and volunteer organizations and has written many articles for New View magazine. He is a practicing etcher, attends the Royal Drawing School, and is a member of The Printmakers Council.