Art Movements: Post-Impressionism
By Anna Cate
Post-Impressionism; an Art Movement
Post-Impressionism as a style moved from the realism of the Impressionists to the nonlocal uses of value, brushstroke, and color of modernism. In the late 1880s, the young artists, the most significant being Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Georges Seurat, decided to only contribute their work to the final Impressionist exhibitions in order to forge their own path that would become Post-Impressionism. While many other artists participated their art in the Salon de Paris, the Fathers of Post-Impressionism did not care to display their work in the traditionalist academy’s show. At the time, it was a big deal for them to reject the Salon de Paris.
The changing culture and world around these artists also influenced their artistic styles and the ways they went about creating the work they did. The late 1880s were a time when democracy was on the rise. Britain, France and even Europe as a whole are all shifting. France was also coming out of the Napoleonic Wars. The Second Industrial Revolution played a big role in the change of the time and heightened the technology. This cultural shift made its way into every part of life including the art world. The Post-Impressionists crafted works that people from all places could relate to.
Impressionists depicted scenes naturally and how they would have been seen. Impressionists depicted modern life and leisure scenes.
Women in the Garden
For example, Women in the Garden 1866 by Claude Monet, a French Impressionist painter. To the Post-Impressionists, the subject matter did not matter as much as how they were shown. In this scene, Monet depicts a normal, somewhat mundane scene. Monet hid the brushstroke and used realistic value to depict a natural scene. The colors are quite natural also as they would have been seen if the viewer were in the canvas.
Paintings of subjects as they were, were an Impressionist specialty. The purpose of this art was not to conjure an emotion, but more times than not the goal was to portray a realistic scene as it would have been seen by the viewer. Post-Impressionism was about rejecting all of these ideals. They wanted to make the viewer feel something from their paintings.
These artists did not care about making the scene believable but proving a point to the viewers.
The Potato Eaters
For example, Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh depicts a dark, somewhat sad scene. Van Gogh plays with value on the canvas, though it is not realistic, it does serve a purpose. Obviously the light would not have hit everyone of the figures’ faces, the back beams and the bottom of all of the walls. The light highlights the beams that lead the eye straight to the distorted, grotesque figures. These features create the feeling to the viewer that these figures have a difficult life. Van Gogh obviously put so much thought into this work and there are so many small details that play a crucial role. For example, in the top-right corner, there is a small cross. This hints to the viewer that these workers have nothing else to depend on accept their religion and God. The viewer can also see a small clock beside the cross, hinting at the fact that they have been working all day long. This work is a perfect example of Vincent van Gogh’s disdain for academic techniques in art.
All of these ideals and examples come together to be what we know as Post-Impressionism today. Looking back at the art of this time, Post-Impressionists created some of the finest art ever made.
Vocabulary List:
Realism: the depiction of a subject as it is seen
Non-local: unnatural
Value: the lighting, how light or dark something is
The Fathers of Post-Impressionism: Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Georges Seurat
The Salon de Paris: the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris
Claude Monet: A French Impressionist painter
Edouart Manet: another French Impressionist
Works Cited
"Bathers at Asnières Georges Seurat" ["Bathers at Asnières Georges Seurat"]. The National Gallery, 2020, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/georges-seurat-bathers-at-asnieres. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.
Bentley, Tanya. "Cézanne's Self-Portraits" ["Cézanne's Self-Portraits"]. National Portrait Gallery, 8 Dec. 2017, www.npg.org.uk/blog/cezannes-self-portraits. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.
Department of European Paintings. "Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm (originally published October 2004, last revised March 2010)
"Femmes de Tahiti [Tahitian Women]" ["Femmes de Tahiti [Tahitian Women]"]. Musée d'Orsay, 2006, www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/tahitian-women-16715.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=503c89d7d8. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.
Freiman, Ray, editor. The World of the Impressionists. Maplewood, NJ, Hammond, 1969.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. Fifteenth edition, Student edition. ed., Boston [Massachussets], Cengage Learning, 2016.
"Georges Seurat." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 Apr. 2012. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Georges-Seurat/66929. Accessed 20 Jan. 2020.
"Impressionism and Post-Impressionism." Oxford Art, Oxford University Press, 2019, www.oxfordartonline.com/page/impressionism-and-post-impressionism/impressionism-and-postimpressionism. Accessed 16 Dec. 2019.
Kang, Cindy. "Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History , Metropolitan Museum of Art , Mar. 2011, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gaug/hd_gaug.htm. Accessed 6 Jan. 2020.
"Madame Cezanne in a Red Dress" ["Madame Cezanne in a Red Dress"]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435876. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.
Museum of Modern Art. www.moma.org/collection/works/79802. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.
"Paul Gauguin." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 15 Nov. 2017. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Paul-Gauguin/36212. Accessed 20 Jan. 2020.
"Paul Gauguin Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)" ["Paul Gauguin Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)"]. National Galleries Scotland, www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/4940/vision-sermon-jacob-wrestling-angel. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.
"Portrait de l'artiste [Self-Portrait]" ["Self Portrait"]. Musée d'Orsay, 2006, www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/self-portrait-2990.html?cHash=a873609651. Accessed 17 Feb. 2020.
Shackelford, George T. M, and Paul Gauguin. Paul Gauguin: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Boston, MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, 2013.
"A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884" ["Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884"]. Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/artworks/27992/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884. Accessed 11 Feb. 2020.
Tompkins Lewis, Marie, and Paul Cézanne. Paul Cézanne, Painting People. London, National Portrait Gallery, 2017.
"Vincent van Gogh." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 Dec. 2019. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Vincent-van-Gogh/277551. Accessed 20 Jan. 2020.
"Vincent Van Gogh - The Potato Eaters" ["Vincent Van Gogh - The Potato Eaters"]. Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Vincent Van Gogh - The Potato Eaters, www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0005V1962?v=1. Accessed 9 Feb. 2020.
Voorhies, James. "Post-Impressionism." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History , Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/poim/hd_poim.htm. Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.
Voorhies, James. "Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Neo-Impressionism." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History , Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/seni/hd_seni.htm. Accessed 3 Jan. 2020.
---. "Paul Cezanne." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pcez/hd_pcez.htm. Accessed 3 Jan. 2020.
Wohlauer, Gilian Shallcross. The MFA Handbook: A Guide to the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Rev. ed., Boston, MFA Publ., 2009.
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