Gaston Redon

Who was Gaston Redon?

Gaston Redon was a French architect, teacher, and graphic artist.

Redon was born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine to a prosperous family, the younger brother of Odilon Redon. Gaston attended the École des Beaux-Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André, and took the Prix de Rome for architecture in 1883. This entitled him to three years at the Villa Medici from 1884 to 1887, where he met and became friends with the composer Claude Debussy.

After his return to Paris, Redon was made the official architect of the Louvre. The rebuilding and expansion of the Pavilion de Marsan between 1900 and 1905 to accommodate the Museum of Decorative Arts amounts to his major built work.

Redon was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in May 1914, and, jointly with Alfred-Henri Recoura, ran an architecture atelier at the Ecole. His students included French architects Henri Marchal, Roger-Henri Expert, and Louis-Hippolyte Boileau among others.

His work includes:

the tomb of César Franck, Montparnasse Cemetery, 1894

the casino at Royan, 1895

Museum of Decorative Arts, Pavillon de Marsan, Louvre, 1900–1905