Art History
Tutors: Emelie Sitzia and Morgan Thomas
Lecture 3 - Neo/Post Impressionism
Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are the names given to the two art
styles which came after Impressionism, in the late 19th century.
Post-Impressionism describes the works produced by artists such as Van Gogh, Paul
Gauguin and Paul Cézanne.
Neo-Impressionism was a smaller movement, but many Post-Impressionists
experimented with Neo-Impressionist methods such as Pointillism. Seurat is one of
the primary Neo-Impressionists.
Post-Impressionism
People
Cézanne
Paul Cézanne is sometimes classified as an Impressionist, and sometimes as a PostImpressionist. He exhibited twice with the Impressionists, but retreated into
isolation in the south of France for 20 years.
Cézanne was originally from Aix en Provence in the south of France, and he had a
very thick accent – he didn’t speak like a “proper” Frenchman. For this reason he
was despised by many Impressionists, Parisians and the general public.
His early work was characterized by dark colours and content, such as “The
Murder,” pictured below.
Cézanne attended the Academie Suisse. This was a free academy where the artists
had to only pay living costs. There were no instructors however, just a model in a
squalid room.
It was at the Academie Suisse where Cézanne first met Pissarro, who became
Cézanne’s friend and mentor. Over the years, they came to work together, not as
student and teacher, but as equals.
After Cézanne returned from his “exile”, he finally gained acceptance among his
peers.
“Strange to say, while I was admiring the curious, disconcerting side of Cézanne that I’ve
been conscious of for a number of years, Renoir arrived. But my enthusiasm was nothing
compared to Renoir’s. Degas himself has fallen for the charm of this refined savage;
Monet, everybody.” - Camille Pissarro, in a letter to Lucien Pissarro, 21 Nov 1895.
Mont Saint Victoire
After moving to the south of
France, Cézanne worked mostly on
landscapes and still lifes. When it
came to landscapes, Cézanne
didn’t bother with seasonal
variants, or capturing the time of
day – all he was interested in was
the motif.
One of the examples of this can be
seen in the progression in style of
one of his favourite subjects. The
Mont Sainte Victoire.
This subject obsessed him – he
painted 43 oil paintings of the Mont
Saint Victoire, and over 40
watercolours.
The first version is very tight and
quite Academic. It has a significant
amount of depth to it.
The second version is a lot flatter, as
Cézanne began refining his style,
becoming more and more abstract.
The final version is defined using
almost nothing but geometrical
brush strokes.
Ambroise Vollard
Ambroise Vollard was one of the most important French art dealers of the early
20th century, providing exposure to many artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh and
Picasso.
Vollard asked Cézanne to do his portrait – but must have regretted it, hundreds of
sittings later!
Portrait of Ambroise Vollard - 1899
It can be observed that this painting is very flat – there is one plane for the subject,
and one plane for the background.
If you look outside the window, you will find that everything out there consists of
geometrical shapes. Cézanne has even broken the lighting indoors into geometrical
forms.
Picasso painted Vollard in 1910 – and if you compare the two side by side, it’s
apparent that Cézanne foreshadowed him by 11 years.
Still Lifes
Throughout most of his life, Cézanne painted still lifes. He was an exceptionally slow
painter, and because of this he painted fruit (in particular, fruits which didn’t rot
quickly) instead of flowers, because the flowers wilted and died before he could
complete the paintings!
Left: Still Life with Apples - 1895-98
Right: Table Corner - 1895-1900
While Cézanne often painted the same subjects, he often had very different takes
on each. Still Life with Apples is very chaotic, while Table Corner is very geometrical
and ordered.
Woman with a Coffee Pot
Woman with a Coffee Pot - c. 1895
The woman in this painting is also very geometrical. The result of this is that the
viewer doesn’t look at her as a human subject, but instead as an object – she bears
a resemblance to her coffee pot!
Van Gogh
Van Gogh was primarily known for his expressive use of line and colour. He was
known for being overly emotional – everyone has heard of the story about him
cutting off his earlobe and giving it to a prostitute named Rachel after a quarrel with
Paul Gaugin.
Much of what is known about Van Gogh has been learned from the letters that he
wrote to his brother Theo.
In the last letter that Van Gogh wrote, he stated that Theo would be much better
off financially if he died. Two days later, he walked into a field outside Paris and shot
himself in the chest.
Impressionist influence on work.
The Potato Eaters - 1882
This was painted before Van Gogh had seen any impressionist work.
The Night Cafe at Arles - 1888
...and after. Van Gogh’s work became a lot more expressive as he began to
experiment with new techniques.
His style was heavily influenced while he was working with Gaugin. Referring to The
Night Cafe at Arles, large blocks of colours are apparent – a slight hint of
Cloisonnism.
Starry Night - 1889
Starry Night is a later example of Van Gogh’s work – getting even more
experimental. It was painted while he was at the asylum at Saint-Remy.
Two of the standout techniques in this painting are the expressive lines and the
“symphony of colours.”
Gauguin
Paul Gauguin was a painter best known for his Cloissionist influences in his works
such as Yellow Christ, and his “primitive” art, influenced by the tropical countries in
which he spent many of his years.
Gauguin began painting late in his life, under the direction of Pissarro. He lost his
job as a stock-broker in Denmark, so he abandoned his family, moved back to
France and began painting full time.
The Nabis were influenced by Gauguin – he said to Paul Serusier that if a tree was
yellow, it should be painted yellow, bright yellow!
Van Gogh said of Gauguin.
“Certainly [he] will not ask the correct tone of the mountains, but [he] will say: In the
Name of God, the mountains were blue, were they? Then chuck on some blue and don't
go telling me that it was a blue rather like this or that, it was blue, wasn't it? Good make them blue and it's enough! Gauguin is sometimes like a genius when he explains
this, but as for the genius Gauguin has, he is very timid about showing it, and it is
touching the way he likes to say something really useful to the young. How strange he is
all the same.”
Vision After the Sermon – Jacob Wrestling with the Angel - 1888
Gauguin used large blocks of colour in this painting – cloissonism. Compositionally,
he cut his canvas between imagination (or vision) and reality by using the diagonal
line.
Christ Jaune (The Yellow Christ) - September 1889
The Yellow Christ is one of Gauguin’s most well known paintings, and is one of the
quintessential examples of cloissonism.
This painting has been very flattened - little remains except large blocks of colour
and hard outlines breaking them.
One interesting thing about this painting is that it is depicting the crucifixion of
Christ with modern, 19th century peasants praying.
Te aa no areois (the seed of Areoi) - 1892
This is one of the paintings that Gauguin painted after going to Tahiti. His aim was
to sell the “dream” of the south seas.
Styles
Cloissonism
Characterized by large chunks of solid colour and dark outlines. Used heavily by
Gauguin, and influenced paintings such as The Talisman
Paul Sérusier - Landscape at the Bois d'Amour at Pont-Aven - also called the "Talisman" - 1888
Paul Sérusier was a member of Les Nabis, and The Talisman, pictured above, is an
example of Gauguin’s influence on him. (Refer back to “If a tree is yellow, paint it
bright yellow!”)
Symbolism
Symbolism was another form of post-impressionism, focusing on non-realistic
depictions of ideas. Symbolists were interested in the world of imagination, and
decorativeness.
Symbolists generally produced decorative works, charged with meaning – but the
meaning and narrative was left for the viewer to decide.
This resulted in paintings like Jupiter and Semele.
Moreau - Jupiter and Semele - 1889-95
Jupiter and Semele is constructed of many, many decorative symbols and motifs.
The end result contains much meaning, and is extremely decorative (much in the
same way as a stained glass window) but it’s left up to the viewer to decide.
Symbolism was a very diverse movement - another symbolist was Redon.
Redon
Redon took the idea of science in art and ran with it – he read all of the books
about natural selection, biological experiments, etc, and created his own imaginary
world – see Smiling Spider.
Smiling Spider - 1881
(to be honest, I find “Crying Spider” to be far more awesome.)
Crying Spider - 1881
Early in Redon’s life, he worked a lot in black in white, with etchings, lithography
and charcoal.
In the late 19th and earlier 20th century, Redon grew to love colours. He painted
Ophelia in 1905.
Ophelia - 1905
Ophelia is an interesting example of Symbolism because the image gives you a
sense of the story, but only through symbols. The flowers are “becoming one” with
her.
The paper has humidity stains in it, also hinting at her death. (whether intentional or
not.)
Neo-Impressionism
People
Seurat
Seurat was an Academy trained artist, who wanted to bring science into paintings.
He wanted to update the academic theories, bringing a new style into the academic
environment.
So, despite his academic training, he painted modern subject matters in a very
scientific fashion.
He took a very methodic way of approaching this – Seurat began with studies.
Studies of characters, studies of landscapes, etc, and he tried to work them
together into grand compositions.
A Sunday at la Grande Jatte - 1884-86
This painting has a good sense of perspective, as opposed to some of the postimpressionistic works such as Cézanne’s later Mont Saint Victoire paintings.
The colours were originally more vibrant, but have faded with age due to the type
of paint used.
Also on the subject of colour, Seurat defined large areas of colour, such as the dark
green, but then he went and mixed different types of dark green, using his dots, for
vibrancy. He also has a lot of contrast – see the light green directly next to the dark
green.
The end result is interesting, because Seurat has taken a traditional subject matter
– the garden of love – and given it a modern twist, bringing it into the
contemporary world.
He has constructed the painting in a solid way, so that there is a sense of order and
timelessness. It’s a very idealized society; keeping with academic tradition in that
sense.
Static Compositions
Seurat’s paintings were often very static – including Sunday. Everyone seems posed,
frozen like statues. This, however, wasn’t unintentional – Seurat was quite capable
of capturing movement, see Le Chahut.
Seurat - Le Chahut - 1890
If you look closely, you can see how the image is made entirely of dots,
characteristic of Seurat’s pointillist style. He has also experimented with
complementary colours.
This painting has a lot more motion than A Sunday at la Grand Jatte, proving that
Seurat can capture movement – he just often didn’t want to.
How has he created movement?
๏ Curves of dresses give sense of motion.
๏ Repeating lines – arms, legs.
๏ Their shadows – remove them and the painting feels far more static.
Seurat - Circus - 1890-91
One of the last paintings Seurat painted before he died. Circus was displayed at the
Salon des Indepedant. Despite being an academically trained painter, Seurat had
strayed too far from tradition to be displayed at the original Salon!
Styles
Pointillism
Pointillism sprang out of the research of impressionism. The impressionist brush
strokes were reduced to dots, etc.
Unedited Bullet Points
๏ Symbolism
• by end of 19th century one of main concepts *leaving* the art world was
decadance
• the concept that society was going downhill
๏ Key terms
๏ Neo Impressionism
๏ Post Impressionism
๏ Pointillism
๏ Cloissonism
๏ Symbolism