Post-Impressionism

"I had a dream the other day. I had written a beautiful book, a wonderful book, which you had illustrated with beautiful, wonderful pictures. Both of our names shone in letters of gold on the first page and, inseparable to this fraternity of genius,

passed on to posterity."

Letter to Paul Cézanne from Emile Zola

From Paris, early 1860’s

Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906), photo-portrait, 1861 (year of first stay in Paris)

“The Master of Aix”

(left) Paul Cézanne, Self Portrait, 1878-80. Compare with (right) Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Vollard, 1910 (Analytic Cubism)

“What forces our interest is Cézanne’s Anxiety. That’s Cézanne’s lesson.”Pablo Picasso

Paul Cézanne, Academic study: Male Nude, 1862

Paul Cézanne, Father of the Artist (Louis Auguste), 1866

Paul Cézanne, The Abduction, 1867

Paul Cézanne, The Murder, 1870

Stock, Caricature of Paul Cézanne with the two painting rejected by the Salon jury of 1870. Portrait of Achille Emperaire, 1867-68, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 48 in. (200 x 122 cm), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Intentionally lacked all the elements of charm, grace and finish appreciated by the jury.

(left) Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Louveciennes, 1871. Compare with(right) Paul Cézanne, Louveciennes, 1872, 73 x 92 cm, oil on canvas, private collection. Transformation of Cézanne’s style through the Impressionism of Pissarro

(left) Paul Cézanne, The Hanged Man's House, 1873, oil on canvas, 22 x 26”, Musée d'Orsay, Paris – breakthrough and beginning of mature style.(right) Camille Pissarro, Red Roofs: Auvers sur Oise, 1877

Paul Cézanne, The Bay from L’Estaque, 1885, 31x39”, Chicago Institute

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from les Lauves1902-6, oil on canvas, 25 x 32”

Auguste Renoir (left), Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1889. Compare withPaul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1889.

The artists painted these paintings together in Aix, en plein aire.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Basket of Apples, 1890-95, oil on canvas 24 x 31,” The Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Cézanne, Large Bathers, 1906 (the year he died, unfinished), o/c, 6’10” x 8’2,” Philadelphia MA

Nicolas Poussin, Mars and Venus, o/c, 1626

Paul Cézanne, Three Bathers, 1879-82, owned by Henri Matisse(right) Henri Matisse, Joie de Vivre, 1906 (Fauvism)

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avigon, 1907 (8’ tall) Post-lapsarian (“after the Fall”)Paul Cézanne, Large Bathers, 1906 (6’10” tall) Pre-lapsarian (“before the Fall”)

Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891, lived 31 years)Neo-Impressionism

(Divisionism, Pointillism, Scientific Impressionism, Chromo-luminism)

Overheard at a Neo-Impressionist exhibition in 1894 : “It’s done mechanically?” “No, Monsieur, by hand.”

The Eiffel Tower, 1889, 9 ½ X 6”, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco

Georges Seurat, Academic Study, c. 1875-1879, chalk drawingSeurat, Embroidery: The Artist’s Mother, 1882-83, conté crayon on ingres

paper 12 x 9 “

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte, 1884-86, o/c, 6’ 9” x 10’ Art Institute of Chicago. Artist was 25 years old

Detail of La GrandeJatte (dog next to monkey) showingPointillist technique

Georges Seurat, Child in White, and Couple, preparatory drawings for La Grande Jatte,1884

Georges Seurat, oil studies for La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat (1859-91) La Grande Jatte, 1884, compared with (below) Puvis de Chavannes (French Symbolist, 1824-98) The Sacred Grove, 1884, part of mural for the Lyons Museum of Fine Art, 181 x 419.” Seurat assisted Puvis de Chavannes on this work.

Seurat, La Grande Jatte compared with Pierro Della Francesca, The True Cross, 1466, early Italian Renaissance fresco

Paul Signac (French 1863-1935), Neo-ImpressionismAgainst the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones

and Tints: Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890, 1890, o/c, 29 x 36”

Paul Signac, The Gulf of Sainte Tropez, 1892compared with Henri Matisse, Luxe, Calme, et Volupté, 1904

Signac and Matisse painted side by side in Sainte Tropez