Post-Impressionism

Origins of the term ‘post-impressionism’

1910, a few years after the last exhibition with Roger Fry

The First post-impressionist exhibition

Roger Fry: Manet and the Post Impressionists 1910-11

Roger Fry context

Self-portrait 1928: originally a renaissance collector, who then became interested in French painting. A role in educating the British public

The second post-impressionist exhibition

1912

Define post-impressionism.

A reaction against impressionism, and a rejection of naturalistic depictions of colour and light. More abstract and symbolic.

Key figures of post-impressionism

Cezanne, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Seurat

Key styles of post-impressionism

divisionism, pointilism, synthesis, cloisonnisme, symbolism

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat, 1884-6

• optical mixer seemingly better = more luminos

Neo-Impressionism

• coined by Fenton in his review of the last impressionist exhibition

• blossomed in 87 following Salon des Independents

• umbrella term for pointilism, divisionism and chromo-luminarism

Define chromo-luminarism

Used by Seurat to describe his interests in intensifying the effects of both light and colour

Define divisionism

term referring to the general principle of separation of color, not of dots

Define pointillism

the technique of using dots to paint, not about colour

Georges Seurat context

• Short career of 10 years

• interested in Delacroix mixing opposite colours on the colour wheel, creating new tones

• began with impressionistic brush stroke, moving to neo

• rejected from salon in 1883 but displayed in Independants

The Apple Pickers

Camille Pissarro 1886:

• adopts some of Seurat

• neo-impressionisti keeping his artwork relevant

The Evening Air and The Artist’s Garden at St. Clair

Henri Edmond Cross 1893, 1904:

• abandons dotting, adopting more broad lines of color

• paving the way for 20th century cubism

Cloisonnism meaning

First used by Dujardin:

• ‘traces his design with enclosing lines in which places various tones’

• derives from cloisonné enamel where the surface is divided into compartments

Key figures in Cloisonnism

• Emile Bernard: The Harvest in 1887

• Louis Anquetin: Iron Bridges at Asnieres

• Gaugin adopted some

Define Synthesism

Late 1880s and early 1890s. Is from the idea that art should be a synthesis of:

• aesthetic considerations (line colour and form)

• the artist’s feelings

• outward appearance of natural forms

Pont-Aven School

Gaugin, Bernard, Serusier

• synthesis artists also went outside for subject, but that is where similarities end

• memorising and then recreating details that artist finds necessary

• therefore, subjective

qualities of synthesism

• strong definition of forms from outlining

• juxtaposing color to accentuate form

• exaggeration and repetition of color

• suppression of pictorial depth

prominent examples of synthesis

Watermill at Pont-Aven: Gaugin 1894

Blue Trees: Gaugin 1888

The Talisman: Serusier 1888

Differences between Neo-impressionism and synthesis/cloisonnism

Neo-impressionism: scientific and analytic/ collars broke/ merge optically / tiny areas of pure colour

Synthesism: broad areas of pure colour/ synthesis rather than analytical/ importance of artist’s feelings

Symbolism meaning

Originally a literary movement

• a mix of philosophy, psychology, science, abstract, religion

Features of symbolism

Not attempting to depict a style, but classes as post-impressionism. Pictorial symbolism

Vision after the Sermon

Gaugin 1888:

• Jacob wrestling the angel

• people coming out of the sermon, their imagination

Cezanne during the impressionist years

Moved to Paris in 1861, the Academie Suisse

• Pissarro helped exhibit during first impressionist

• not well received

• shows 17 landscapes and still-life at the 3rd impressionist

• by 1880’s he lived mostly in Provence

Cezanne during post-impressionist years

• no longer painting in an impressionist style

• returned to Paris in 1888, becoming friend with Van Gogh, Gaugin and Bernard

• first solo exhibition in 1895

• he moved around France 80s and 90s

Cezanne and impressionism

• structure and solidity which he believed impressionism neglected

• rejection of naturalistic rendering

• geometric, little depth

Bridge at Maincy

1879 Cezanne

Rock at L’Estaque

Cezanne 1882: little depth

Still-life, Basket of Apples

Cezanne 1887-1900:

• light blue flattens

• tilted table, distorted perspective

• influences cubism and fauvism

• treating each object individually

Van Gogh context

• 1870s and 80s: lived in Paris and Antwerp, moving to France more permanently in 86

• inspired by Pissarro Seurat and cross as well as Japanese woodblock

• style changed after meeting Monet and Sisley in 87

The potato eaters

Van Gogh 1885: dark early work

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat

Van Gogh 1887:

• clear change in style

• his own model for lack of money

• influenced by pointilism

Two Women Taking a Walk in a Park

Van Gogh 1888: taking own Gaugin’s advice to paint his memory