Encyclopedic Study Guide on Post-Impressionism: Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin

Historical and Artistic Context of Post-Impressionism

• Post-Impressionism was the era that followed Impressionism, which focused on capturing the changing fall of light on subjects and how light affected colour.
• Distinct Impressionist qualities included broken and visible brushstrokes, painting ‘en plein air’, and the use of modern colours.
• Politically, the era shifts from the reign of Napoleon III in $1870$ to the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War in $1871$, which saw France become a republic once more.
• The period was socially unsettled due to rivalries between republicans and monarchists, yet it was a time of significant scientific and artistic advancement.
• Imperialism was rampant, with the French Colonial Empire and the British Empire actively colonizing regions in North Africa, Indochina ($Vietnam$), and French Polynesia (including $Tahiti$).
• The colonial mindset was driven by a ‘civilising mission’, where Europeans believed it was their duty to convert natives to Christianity.
• Post-Impressionism emerged in the $1870’s$ and $1880’s$ as artists sought to carve out their own niches beyond the core Impressionist style. Major movements within this evolution include Primitivism, Expressionism, and Synthetism.
• The movement was led by three primary individuals: Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Concepts of Primitivism, Synthetism, and Expressionism

• Primitivism: Paul Gauguin was the most prominent artist in this method. It is based on the romantic notion that less industrially developed countries were more spiritual, genuine, authentic, and in tune with nature than ‘artificial’ Europeans.
• Expressionism (Van Gogh): Characterized by an emotionally expressive style, Van Gogh used vibrant colour to express intense human emotions. He traded dark tones for light after being influenced by other avant-garde artists.
• Synthetism (Gauguin): A theory developed by Paul Gauguin defined by:
  • Simplified forms and eliminated details.
  • The use of thick lines and large flat areas of colour.
  • A neglect of linear perspective and the elimination of shadows.
  • The use of planes of colour to create an illusion of depth.
• Cezanne’s Focus on Structure: Cezanne rejected Impressionism because he felt it was overly obsessed with light and colour, resulting in paintings that lacked structure and were merely a ‘brightly coloured haze’. He desired art that was substantial, solid, and classical, similar to museum pieces.

Paul Cezanne ($1839$-$1906$): Context and Evolution

• Cezanne was born in Aix en Provence to a wealthy and domineering banker father who insisted his son study Law and enter banking.
• After proving to be an ‘atrocious banker’, his father allowed him to enroll in the Academie Suisse, where he met Impressionists like Pissarro.
• Although he worked during the same timeframe as Monet and exhibited with them in $1874$, he never considered himself a true Impressionist.
• Early work was marked by sinister and disturbing subject matter, including murders, rapes, and orgies, following his rejection and ridicule by The Salon.
• Influence of Pissarro: Pissarro introduced him to Manet and Degas at Café Guerbois and encouraged him to abandon mythological themes to work directly from nature.
• In $1872$, he moved to Auvers sur Oise with his wife, beginning a prolific period of nature-based landscapes alongside Pissarro.
• He sought to combine the freshness of nature with the solid form of the great masters like Poussin and Delacroix found in the Louvre.
• In $1878$, he returned home to the south of France, where the climate allowed for nature to appear clear and defined. He became such a recluse until $1906$ that some thought he had died until art dealer Amboise Vollard took interest.

Analysis of Cezanne’s Artistic Style and Key Works

• The Bay at Marseilles: Part of a series, this work depicts the sea as a bold and stable mass using a strong framework and muted colours, contrasting Monet’s flickering light displays.
• Technical Process: Cézanne’s painting was slow and painful as he struggled between what he saw and his desire for order. He pushed subject matter toward the regularity of geometric shapes.
• Figurative/Portrait Work: He painted portraits of those he knew ($30$ portraits of his wife Hortense) and his son. He treated figures like human still-lifes, requiring them to sit still for hours. ‘Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair’ ($1877$) shows a solemn, majestic quality with otherworldly stillness.
• Still Life with Apples and Oranges: He simplified fruit into colours and shapes, ignoring Renaissance single-point perspective. He famously stated: ‘Treat nature as a cylinder, sphere or cone’. In this work, the table is tilted and objects lean, creating his own reality.
• Mont St Victoire Series: Cezanne painted over $60$ versions of this landscape from the $1870’s$ until his death, using both oil and water colour.
  • Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine ($1887$): Uses a tree as a framing device. The high viewpoint makes the mountain appear closer, with branches echoing the mountain’s outline.
  • Mont Sainte-Victoire ($1902$-$1904$): Painted from a hill above his studio, showing freedom of expression. Dense brushstrokes appear as slabs of vibrant colour in a mosaic style, nearing abstraction.

Vincent Van Gogh ($1853$-$1890$): Life and Transition

• Born in rural Holland to a Dutch minister, Van Gogh was a sensitive soul who felt deep empathy for the poor.
• He failed as a preacher due to perceived fanaticism and turned to art as his mission, focusing on draughtsmanship and subjects from peasant life in muted, dark tones.
• Paris Period ($1885$): Met Pissarro and Gauguin. He adopted Impressionist techniques and linear strengths from Japanese prints. His work exploded with intense energy and colour.
• During his $8$-year career, he painted $35$ self-portraits, which document his declining mental health. He suffered from anxiety and depression due to the pressures of surviving as an artist.
• Arles and the South of France: Van Gogh moved to Arles, Provence, seeking sunlight. He believed the area was ‘as beautiful as Japan’. His brother Theo financed a ‘yellow house’ for him.
• His painting style in Arles became defined by impasto (thick paint), broadening brushstrokes, rhythmic patterns, and the use of colour to express human emotions.

Significant Works and Relationships of Van Gogh

• Van Gogh’s Room: Painted to show Gauguin the space they would share in an artist’s colony. It uses symbolism (two chairs, two pillows, two paintings) to represent coexistence. The perspective is skewed and exaggerated.
• Sunflowers Series: Symbolizing the sun’s energy and religious vitality, Van Gogh painted $4$ versions in just $6$ days. The depiction of flowers from full bloom to withering symbolizes mortality.
• The Conflict with Gauguin: Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles, but their personalities clashed. After a violent argument, Gauguin left, and Van Gogh self-harmed by cutting off his ear, leading to breakdowns and his entry into an asylum in St. Remy in $1889$.
• The Starry Night ($1889$): Painted at St. Remy from memory and emotional response.
  • Composition: Divided into foreground, middle ground, and background.
  • Elements: Enormous stars like yellow fireballs, a brightly lit crescent moon, and a vertical cypress tree silhouette balancing the composition. Sweeping impasto brushstrokes express the turbulence and mystery of the universe.
• The End: After leaving St. Remy, he lived in Auvers under Dr. Gachet’s care. Despite inner turmoil, he painted scenes like cornfields with black crows. On July $27^{th}$, $1890$, he shot himself in the stomach in a cornfield and died two days later. His brother Theo died $6$ months later on January $25^{th}$, $1890$ (as per transcript records).

Paul Gauguin ($1848$-$1903$): Early Years and Synthetism

• Born in France, he spent $5$ years as a child in Peru, an experience that influenced his art. He initially worked as a successful stockbroker and was a ‘Sunday painter’.
• Pissarro mentored him for $6$ years at Pontoise. He was only tolerated by other Impressionists (like Monet and Renoir) due to his wealth, though Degas respected him.
• In $1883$, he resigned his job and eventually abandoned his family to live a life of poverty as a full-time artist.
• In $1886$, he moved to Pont-Aven in Brittany, where he adopted the role of an eccentric master and was influenced by Japanese prints and Cezanne.
• Style Evolution: He used primary colours, flat panes of colour, and strong outlines while banishing shadows and linear perspective.

Gauguin in Tahiti: Narrative and Philosophical Works

• Gauguin moved to Tahiti in $1891$, returned to France in $1893$, and left again in $1895$, never to return. He sought a ‘lost paradise’ free from European corruption, though Tahiti was already a French colony.
• Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? ($1897$-$1898$): This large, unprimed canvas explores life, death, and human existence. It includes:
  • Three women with a baby on the right (birth/existence).
  • A central figure plucking fruit (search for knowledge, Adam/Garden of Eden).
  • An idol/deity in blue tones background (menace lurking near humanity).
  • An old woman on the left (aging and death).
  • Gauguin attempted suicide by arsenic after finishing this piece.
• Tahitian Women on the Beach / Two Tahitian Women: These works depict the women as exotic and beautiful, equating them to classical Greek goddesses. In ‘Two Tahitian Women’, they carry a basket of mango blossoms, representing an offering of innocence.
• Despite his romanticized paintings, Gauguin lived in debt and suffered from syphilis and depression until his death from a heart attack in May $1903$.

Influence on $20^{th}$-Century Art Movements

• Gauguin and Fauvism: Gauguin’s simplified forms and use of intense, non-naturalistic colour influenced ‘Les Fauves’ (the Wild Beasts) led by Henri Matisse.
• Cezanne and Cubism: Pablo Picasso referred to Cezanne as ‘the father of us all’. Cubism was directly inspired by Cezanne’s multiple viewpoints and his theory of depicting nature as spheres, cones, and cylinders.
• Van Gogh and Expressionism: After Van Gogh’s death, his work was promoted by Theo’s widow and son. His distortion of form and energetic brushwork became a major catalyst for the Expressionist movement.
• Common Characteristics of Expressionism: Bold brushwork, distortion, exaggeration, imagination, and vivid colours/shapes as seen in works by Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Edvard Munch, and Wassily Kandinsky.