Beyond Positivism: 18th and 19th Century Art in Europe

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch 

The Night Cafe, 1888 (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery) 

Describe the context before Van Gogh

Symbolist art Theory, Positivism, and artistic Utopia, new technique of painting: exotic colors, painters mark, and impressionism

Describe the early context of Van Gogh

searching and uncertainty in his life, early art: struggles of working class, went to France and saw remains of impressionist art, come to grips with world around him through painting: rooted in tangible world with artists state of compassion, intense color=psychological realism

describe the overall composition in the night cafe painting and its significance

symbolist approach to modern painting, uneven lines converge to door and red walls= sense of anxiety, table is looming shadow, fiery glare, oppressive mood trapped in mundane setting, haphazard chairs, interrelated painting with bedroom scene= contrasting state of mind and psychological dialogue,

Describe the color and painting technique in night cafe and its significance

flaming palette, yellow and red=symbolic furnace where one can ruin oneself and desolation and discard, color=plight of irrational mind, floorboards clotted with pigment=sculpted into 3D

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch 

Starry Night, 1889 (New York, Museum of Modern Art) 

Paul Gauguin (1839-1903), French 

Vision After the Sermon (Jacob and the Angel), 1888 (Edinburgh, National Gallery)

Paul Gauguin (1839-1903), French 

Manao tupapau (Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch), 1892 (Buffalo, Albright-Knox Gallery)

Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norwegian 

The Scream, 1893 (Oslo, National Museum) 

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French 

Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1885-1887 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) 

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French 

The Large Bathers, 1905 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)