Post-Impressionism
C.1879-1910
“The artist as himself”
•Impressionists held their last show in 1874- had gained wide acceptance
(Monet was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French
Government)
•No longer a pioneering movement
•“Post-Impressionism” doesn’t explain much!
•Describes artists who tried Impressionism, but were dissatisfied with its
limitations- went beyond it but in dissimilar styles
•Some thought that Impressionists were neglecting traditional elements of
picture making
•Wanted to carry the ideas of Impressionism further- were not antiImpressionists- can see its influence in Post-Impressionism
•Paul Cezanne 1839-1906
•Did not share Impressionist
love for everyday scenes
•Search for harmony of form
and color- very disciplined
application of paint- every
brushstroke mattered
•Put colors next to each other
that created “chords” of warm
and cool colors throughout the
painting
Cezanne, Self-Portrait, c. 1879
Cezanne, Still-Life with Apples, 1890
•Master of still-lifes
•Quest for “solid and durable” - Chardin’s sense of the importance of everyday
objects
•Pattern of brushstrokes give the painting a shimmering feel
•Forms are deliberately simplified and outlined with dark colors
•Perspective is deliberately wrong
•Believed that all forms in nature are based upon the cone, sphere, and cylinder
•Applying this
theory to landscapes
became the
challenge of his
career
•From 1882 on, he
lived in isolation
and painted his
surroundings
•Made a series of
paintings about this
mountain
•Has a disciplined
energy
Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Bibemus Quarry, 1897-1900
George Seurat, The Bathers, 1883-84
•George Seurat (1859-1891) short lifetime, very influential (like Caravaggio)
•Devoted to just a few large paintings- spent over a year on each, making many studies
•Similar colors and light, but opposite of the quick feel of the Impressionists
•Immobile figures, ordered surface- search for permanence
•Uses flicks and later dots of paint that combine to create the image-idea from Cezanne
Vincent Van Gogh (18531890)
•Opposite- tried to make
Impressionism less
ordered
•Emotions were more
important than order
•1st great Dutch master
since the 17th centuryworked for only 10 years,
no conventional art
training-clumsy forms
•Main energy was
landscape painting, much
different than cezanne
Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Fields and Cypress Trees, 1889
•Earth and sky are turbulent and filled with emotion- all in motion
•Artist’s personal handwriting is all important, although to Van Gogh, color was his
means of expression- often gave meanings to specific colors and used them over and
over again
•To portray the essence of himself
•Wanted to portray humans as
holy enough to deserve a halo
(from past art)
•Believed that art alone made his
life worth living
Van Gogh, Self Portrait, 1889
Paul Gauguin, The Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling
With the Angel), 1888
•Devoted himself to
art at the age of 35
•Became the leader
of the Symbolist
movement
•Believed that
Western civilization
was out of joint
•Left Paris and
studied peasant life
in Western France
•Pre-Renaissance
style- flat, simplified
shapes, outlined in
black- like stained
glass-stressed return
to Primitive (Egypt,
Near East)
•Moved to Tahiti to
learn simplicity
from the natives
•Followers of Gauguin
called themselves the
“Nabis”, meaning prophets
•Spread the word of PostImpressionism: “The
Picture- before being a war
horse, a female nude, or
some anecdote-is
essentially a flat surface
covered with colors in a
particular order”
•Small and intimate pictures
•Color mosaics, economy of
means
Edward Vuillard, Repast in a Garde, 1898
•Looked to an intense inner world
(pretty disturbing)
•Adopted Impressionist palette and
brushstroke but for a completely
different end
•Imagination becomes visible
•Illogical and solely based on
imagination- themes often used by
the surrealists
Odilon Redon, The Cyclops, 1898
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892
•A preoccupation with decadence, evil, and darkness was popular- reflected the
dissatisfaction with modern life
•Toulouse-Lautrec was the physical incarnation of this- disfigured, shady, and full
of mystery- died of alcoholism
•Admirer of Degas- how can you tell?
•Joyless and oppressive environment
Edvard Munch, Ashes, 1893
•Continuation of the macabre theme
•Norweigien who moved to Paris
•Painted frightening apparitions, using undulating, never-ending rhythms
•Generated much controversy when his works were exhibited
•Broke off from the accepted artists in Germany and formed the Berlin
Secession-became an international movement
•Joined the Berlin
Secessionists when it
spread to Vienna
•Close ties to the Art
Nouveau decoration
movement
•Full of both of eroticism
and images of a joyless life
Gustav Klimt, Three Ages of Woman, 1907
Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910
•Discovered by Picasso- no art training, began painting at the age of 46 (there is
hope for all of us!)
•A folk artist genius! Magical and enchanted world
•Innocence like Gauguin preached
•Inspired by Primitivism like
Gauguin and the purity of
Russian peasant life
•Intense color of the Fauvists to
come
•Very expressive and unique
•Simplified forms inspired
Picasso
Modersohn-Becker, Self
•Wave of modern buildings in Chicago
because of the great fire of 1871
•The first “Sky Scraper”
•Based on Renaissance ideas
•Internal steel skeleton- any type of
material could be “stretched” across it
•Thought of buildings as humans- with a
skeleton and muscles
•Thank you Elisha Otis!
•Form follows function in a two-way
relationship
•Louis Sullivan, Wainwright Building, St.
Louis, Missouri, 1890-91
The Arts and Crafts
Movement
In England
William Morris, Green Dining Room, 1867
•A reaction against industrialization- Morris had a distrust of machines and
industrial capitalism
•Advocated an art made by and for the people- a joy for the maker and the userpartly a socialist idea
•Functional objects with high aesthetic value for the wide public- based on natural
forms, repeated floral or geometric patterns
•Patterns from Floor to ceiling- produced wallpaper, textiles, tiles, furniture, books,
rugs, stained glass, and pottery
Antonio Gaudi, Casa Mila, 1907
•An international architectural and design movement developed out of the Arts and
Crafts Movement and inspired by Japanese printmaking and Van Gogh- ART
NOVEAU
•Art based on natural forms that could be mass produced for a large audience
•Gaudi’s building takes its cues from Moorish architecture and from recent finds from
the discovery of Altamira
•Conceived as a whole, almost sculpted like a sculpture-undulating and rhythmic like
an organic form
•The other extreme of Art Noveau
Architecture
•Similar to Sullivan’s aesthetic
•Sculpted like Gaudi’s out of one idea
Charles Rennie Mackintosh,
Glasgow School of Art, 1896-1910
•Louis Comfort Tiffany
•1848-1933
•Headed Tiffany and Company which
was started by his father
•Experimented with stained glass
techniques, creating a patent for
opalescent glass
•Many, many copies were made of his
designs and technique
•Produced perfume bottles, tiles, desk
furniture and most importantly
WINDOWS!
•Contributed to the spread of the Art
Noveau style