Redon's Unsatiated Thirst

I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted before an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased. 

Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon, Bouquet de Fleurs, 1904, Oil on canvas

Odilon Redon,  The Centaur and the dragon, 1908 ?, Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard

Odilon Redon, The Palm, 1899, Oil on cardboard

detail, Redon's The Palm