Unit 3 – Post-Impressionism & Key Artists

Overview

• Definition of Post-Impressionism
  • Umbrella term for French–based artists working at the tail–end of the $19^{ ext{th}}$ century who were initially inspired by Impressionism’s investigation of light, colour, and modern life but shifted focus toward personal symbolism, emotional intensity, and/or scientific colour theory.
  • Key figures covered: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Rodin.
  • Shared traits: break with academic realism, exploration of individual psychology, experimentation with colour relationships, and, for most, life/career centred in Paris before dispersing to regional or overseas locations.
• Recommended pre-requisite lecture: Impressionism (Unit $2$).
• Instructor’s film recommendations & pop-culture references:
  • Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, $2011$) for historical-fiction encounters with $19^{ ext{th}}$–$20^{ ext{th}}$-century artists.
  • Loving Vincent (hand-painted animation, $2017$) – narrative built from Van Gogh’s letters.
  • Doctor Who clip (Musée d’Orsay scene) – fictional posthumous recognition for Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh (Expressionism within Post-Impressionism)

• Basic biography
  • Born $1853$, Groot-Zundert, The Netherlands – proper Dutch pronunciation "Vincent van Gogh" (hard guttural "kh").
  • Initial career attempts: art dealer, lay minister in Belgian coal-mining district; abandoned ministry $1880$ to pursue art full-time.
  • Lifelong emotional/medical struggles: possible bipolar disorder, seizure disorder, inner-ear disease, and/or lead poisoning (he cleaned brushes with his mouth while pigments contained lead).
  • Only one painting sold during lifetime (to a doctor-collector).
  • Death: presumed suicide $07/29/1890$ in Auvers-sur-Oise (some alternative murder theories exist).
• Guiding quote: “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” → reflects incremental practice, accretive brushstrokes, and lecture’s pedagogical advice (break tasks into smaller pieces).

Stylistic DNA

• Thick impasto, visible energetic brush-marks → viewer experiences the gesture and the emotion simultaneously.
• Non-naturalistic, saturated palette to translate internal sensation rather than optical fact.
• Frequent subjects: self-portraits, humble interiors, local landscapes, night skies, cypress trees, wheat fields.
• Japanese ukiyo-e influence (esp. Hokusai & Hiroshige): flattened space, strong contour, bold complementary colours, asymmetrical composition.

Chronological highlights

• Early “dark palette” phase (Belgium)
  • The Potato Eaters ($1885$): dim earth tones, miners’ poverty; embryonic chunky strokes in hands/faces.
• Paris period $1886$–$1888$
  • Contact with Pissarro, Monet, Gauguin; absorbs light palette, short dab marks; soon rejects pure Impressionist opticalism.
  • Basket of Oranges (c.$1887$) – transitional: brighter chroma yet surging contour lines at table leg foreshadow signature style.
• Arles & Saint-Rémy (South of France) $1888$–$1889$
  • Friendship & violent quarrel with Gauguin (knife incident, partial ear removal → legend of gifting ear to a brothel worker).
  • Voluntary internment at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum; paints Starry Night ($1889$).
  • Not literal view: church type is Dutch, night sky displays swirling cosmic energy; foreground cypress (cemetery tree) = mortality memento.
  • Physical specs: canvas roughly $29\,\text{in} \times 36\,\text{in}$ (smaller than public expects); held at MoMA NY.
  • Micro-view: concentric arcs in ultramarine, cobalt, chrome-yellow, zinc-white – rhythmic vortex evokes atomic/molecular dynamism.
• Auvers-sur-Oise (final $70$ days)
  • Wheatfield with Crows & Church at Auvers (both $1890$): ominous blacks, split paths, hurried strokes; painted days before fatal gunshot.

Paul Gauguin (Symbolism)

• Background
  • Born Paris $1848$; childhood in Peru; sailor in French navy; successful Parisian stockbroker; father of $6$.
  • Mid-life pivot: hobby painting → obsession; leaves family $1886$.
• Geographic phases
  • Brittany (Pont-Aven circle) → develops cloisonné style: large flat zones, heavy outlines, mystical Catholic folklore.
  • Tahiti & Marquesas Islands ($1891$–death $1903$): seeks “primitive” purity; controversial relationships with teenage Māori partners; saturated exotic palette.
• Key works
  • Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling the Angel) ($1888$): split reality (foreground Breton women vs. crimson spiritual zone).
  • Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? ($1897$–$1898$): frieze-like life cycle, read right→left; created during suicidal crisis; painted on burlap-textured sailcloth.
• Style tags: anti-realist, dream-state allegory, non-European idol imagery, deliberately “flat” decorative surface (influence on Fauvism & Primitivism).

Georges Seurat (Neo-Impressionism, Pointillism/Divisionism)

• Biography
  • Born Paris $1859$; rigorous academic training; blends colour science with artistic practice.
  • Dies age $31$ ($1891$) of infectious disease, truncating prolific research.
• Optical theory
  • Paints adjacent dots/strokes of unmixed pure pigment; relies on viewer’s retina for additive colour mixture (ex: red + blue dots ⇒ perceived violet).
  • Term “divisionism” = separation of chromatic elements; “pointillism” = physical dot delivery.
• Magnum opus
  • A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ($1884$–$1886$)
  • Dimensions $120\,\text{in} \times 81\,\text{in}$.
  • Estimated $3{,}456{,}000$ discrete dots.
  • Depicts bourgeois & working-class Parisians in suburban leisure; subtle social commentary on modernity, fashion, class mixing.
• Other notable works: Le Chahut / The Can-Can (nightclub, rhythmic diagonals) & La Tour Eiffel (architectural modern icon painted $1889$).

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Montmartre Chronicler)

• Aristocratic but physically stunted (genetic disorder + accidents) → outsider within elite class; finds camaraderie in Parisian nightlife.
• Influences: Degas’ backstage ballets, Japanese poster design.
• Media: combines oil painting with lithographic posters (graphic design precursor).
• Iconic subjects: Moulin Rouge dancers, cabaret singers, sex workers, circus performers.
• Stylistic hallmarks: caricatural exaggeration, flat colour zones, cropped compositions, integrated lettering.
• Sample posters: La Goulue au Moulin Rouge (advertising can-can star) & Divan Japonais (concert-café promotion).

Paul Cézanne (Structural Post-Impressionism; “Father of Modern Art”)

• Financial security (banker father) → freedom to experiment without market pressure.
• Goal: “treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone” – seeks underlying geometric order beneath optical appearances.
• Recurring motifs:
  • Still-life (apples, gingham cloth, tilted tabletops) – deliberate perspective distortions, colour modelling creates volume without chiaroscuro.
  • Mont Sainte-Victoire series – repeated plein-air study of Provençal mountain, each reducing forms to planar patches.
• Legacy: bridges Impressionism and Cubism (Picasso & Braque cite him as direct catalyst).

Auguste Rodin (Modern Sculpture)

• Called “Michelangelo of the $19^{\text{th}}$ Century”, yet forward-looking.
• Merges Impressionist surface vitality with classical anatomical knowledge.
• Emphasises texture and light interplay on bronze or marble surfaces.
• Major projects
  • The Gates of Hell ($1880$–$1917$): $17\,\text{ft}$ bronze portal for unbuilt Decorative Arts Museum; inspired by Dante’s Inferno; incubator for standalone figures (The Thinker, The Three Shades, etc.).
  • The Thinker (large & small casts derived from central lintel figure; popular culture icon of intellectual contemplation).
  • The Burghers of Calais ($1887$): six heroic yet vulnerable civic martyrs; uncompromising realism, emotional weight; multiple casts worldwide.

Cross-Connections & Thematic Threads

• Japanese Art (Japonisme): Van Gogh, Gauguin, Lautrec, & Degas all draw compositional lessons from ukiyo-e woodcuts (flat colour, diagonal thrusts, cropped edges).
• Colour as emotion vs. colour as science: Gauguin/Van Gogh embrace intuitive symbolism; Seurat applies chromoluminarist rules; Cézanne uses colour to build form; Lautrec exploits high-contrast posters for commercial visibility.
• Psychological content: shift from Impressionist optical record to depiction of dreams (Gauguin), mental turmoil (Van Gogh), decadence (Lautrec).
• Modern ethics: Gauguin’s abandonment of family & relationships with underage Māori girls, Orientalist fantasies; Lautrec’s intimate portrayals of sex workers; artists’ mental-health narratives (Van Gogh’s institutionalisation) – raise questions about separating art from biography.

Numerical & Statistical Highlights (all figures LaTeX-formatted)

• Van Gogh life span: $1853\text{–}1890$ (died age $37$).
• Only $1$ painting sold during lifetime.
• Starry Night size ≈ $29\,\text{in} \times 36\,\text{in}$.
• Seurat’s dot count for La Grande Jatte: $3{,}456{,}000$.
• La Grande Jatte dimensions: $120\,\text{in} \times 81\,\text{in}$ (roughly $10\,\text{ft} \times 6.75\,\text{ft}$).
• Rodin’s Gates of Hell height: $17\,\text{ft}$.

Suggested Further Study & Resources

• Read Van Gogh’s letters to brother Theo (primary insight into colour theories & mental states).
• Khan Academy videos on Divisionism, Symbolism, Cézanne’s constructive stroke, Rodin’s casting methods.
• Musée d’Orsay & Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam) virtual tours.
• Scholarly debates:
  • Was Van Gogh murdered? (Naifeh & Smith, Van Gogh: The Life, $2011$).
  • Gauguin’s post-colonial critique (T.J. Clark, Abigail Solomon-Godeau).

Light-hearted Mnemonics & Pop-Culture Jokes

• Memes: “Van Gogh / Van Gogh-ing / Van Gone” – mnemonic for chronology (early career, peak productivity, death).
• Frozen parody “Let it Gogh” (Elsa + ear bandage) – recall ear incident year $1888$.

Study Tips

• Approach each artwork with dual lens:
  $\bullet$ Formal (colour, line, composition, medium).
  $\bullet$ Contextual (artist’s biography, social milieu, contemporary technology/medicine).
• Create comparative charts (e.g., Van Gogh vs. Seurat colour logic; Cézanne vs. Rodin structure) to solidify distinctions.
• Break revision into “small things” (artist flashcards, timeline quizzes, thematic mind-maps) – echoing Van Gogh’s own advice.