Post- Impressionism

Some review:

Impressionism was influenced by Realism:

• scenes of contemporary life

• personal views and subjects; art for art’s sake

• avant garde attitude; the artist is separate from the mainstream

Some review:

Impressionism was influenced by Realism:

• scenes of contemporary life

• personal views and subjects; art for art’s sake

• avant garde attitude; the artist is separate from the mainstream

Impressionism was mainly concerned with:

• the play of light on surfaces

• intensity of colour (canvases primed white; no black used)

• informal compositions

• En Plein Aire-French expression which means "in the open air," and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.

The play of light on surfaces:

Renoir, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876

The play of light on surfaces:

Degas, L’etoile, 1878

Intensity of colour:

Monet, Field of Poppies, 1873

Intensity of colour:

Monet, Water Lilies, 1916

Informal compositions were inspired by the wide-spread use of photography (thanks to the invention of roll film) and the resulting candid photos.

Informal compositions:

Degas, The Absinthe

Drinker, 1876

We call the next generation Post-Impressionists

We call the next generation Post-Impressionists

“Post” signifies after.

The only thing this group of artists has in common is that they ere influenced by the Impressionists’ use of intense colour.

Their importance lies in their huge influence on the artwork of the 20th century: Modernism.

Post-Impressionism• Loose grouping of artists

using techniques of impressionism.

• Artists developed own unique styles.

• Wanted to combine immediacy of impressionism with composition of traditional painting.

• Followed two directions focus on design, or focus on emotion.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Moulin Rouge, 1892 / 95

La Goulue arrivant au Moulin Rouge, 1895

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

Jane Avril, lithograph,1893

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

• Short in stature (only 4’6”), turns to art scene in Monmartre

• Was inspired by Degas (Japanese prints=flatness)

• Also POSTERS! Elevated graphic arts!!!

Toulouse-Lautrec

La Parade,1889

Georges Seurat

Tiny dots of pure colourplaced next to each other;your retina does the mixing!

No more informal compositions; everything is carefully planned.

Detail from La Parade

Georges Seurat

… this technique is called pointillism.

•This is an extreme close up of a bill board.

•Notice the similarities to Seurat’s method of adding color.

•This method is also used in televisions.

Sunday afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte, 1884-86Georges Seurat

Size: 81 ½ inches by 121”

Seurat• Known for Pointilism - using small dots of

complementary colors directly ON THE CANVAS rather than mixed prior

• Complementary colors side by side mix in the viewers eye with greater luminosity

• Seurat is influenced by Chevreul’s new idea called COLOR THEORY

Seurat

Still Life with Plaster Cupid, 1895

Paul Cezanne

Collapse of space!!

The Card Players, 1890-92

Paul Cezanne

Simplification of form!!

Mount St. Victoire, 1897

Paul Cezanne

Surfaces broken up into flat facets, like the shimmering surface of a diamond!!

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CÉZANNE

•“Father” of Modern Art (contact with the Impressionists but creates his own “language”. Known as a Post-Impressionist)

•Took landscape paintings into “something solid and durable”

•His still lifes will influence Cubism (Braque and Picasso)

1. Color patches—used to capture true colors of surrounding land.

2. Varied colors– warmer colors placed closer towards view, while cooler colors receding in background but did not use the theory of atmospheric perspective and backgrounds are flat.

3. Multiple viewpoints—not like a camera, more real (Cubist)

4. Underlying shapes—rectangles, triangles, etc. “Treat nature as a cylinder, sphere, or cone”.

4 Techniques used by Cezanne

The Vision after the Sermon, 1888

Paul Gauguin

Distortion of space!!Distortion of colour!!

The Yellow Christ, 1889

Paul Gauguin

The beginnings of abstraction!!

500 years of tradition was thrown out the window!!

Self Portrait with Halo,1889

Paul Gauguin

Abstract forms, colours and symbolism!!

GAUGUIN•Originally a stockbroker with 5 children but left his family to pursue art on his own in Paris, then leaves Europe for Tahiti to paint

•His style: inspiration from stained glass, Japanese prints, and cloisonne enameling

•PRIMITIVISM--art movement of late 19th century characterized by exaggerated body proportions, animal totems, geometric designs and stark contrasts

•He considered his style synthetism-

Synthesized the subject with the artist’s

Feeling, using line, shape, color, etc.

Self Portrait, 1889

Vincent Van Gogh

Self Portraits

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh’s Room at Arles, 1889

Vincent Van Gogh

Distortion of colour, depth and form to convey emotional or psychological states!!

Starry Night, 1889Vincent Van Gogh

These swirls weren’t in the sky; they were in his mind.

• Trained to be an art dealer but then left to become a missionary (then a painter). Socialist--progress=alienation

• Largely self-taught

• Supported by his art dealer brother, Theo

• KNOW ABOUT HIS STYLE—vibrant colors, swirling brushstrokes, thick globs of paint (IMPASTO)

• Took Seurat’s Divisionism and blended it with Impressionism

• EXPRESSIONIST– the artist’s feelings are core and reality is subjective

VAN GOGH

Cezanne…

20th Century Western Art has its roots in the Post Impressionists

influenced “Cubism”

Van Gogh and Gauguin…influenced “Expressionism”

20th Century Western Art has its roots in the Post Impressionists

Van Gogh and Gauguin…influenced “Expressionism”

20th Century Western Art has its roots in the Post Impressionists

Van Gogh and Gauguin…influenced “Expressionism”

20th Century Western Art has its roots in the Post Impressionists