need to struggle financially as many of his colleagues did ... · proaches to painting became known...

Course Code: AVI 4MModule: Art Theory and History for Senior Students

7Chapter 2: Post Impressionism

YOUR NOTES ON PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

“Self Portrait”. 1879. oil on canvas.

By the turn of the century, Impressionism had run its course, (Monet, Renoir, Degas etc. continued to work but were exploring new aspects of the style) Artists influenced by Impressionism who experi-mented with colour theory, techniques and new ap-

proaches to painting became known as Post Impres-sionists. They were contemporary with the Impres-sionists and used their techniques at first, but no longer wanted to describe the instantaneous glimpse of nature that Impressionism focused on.

Two basic directions began to emerge... 1) a permanence of form and design or in other words a personal style based on Formal Order i.e. Cezanne and Seurat and 2) personal styles based on Emotion and personal expression i.e. van Gogh and Gauguin.

We will take a closer look at some of these artists from the late 19th century starting with Paul Cezanne.

POST IMPRESSIONISM

Paul Cezanne is considered by many to be the most important of the 19th century experimenters, struggling in his painting to express his ideas about the nature of art. He was the son of a wealthy merchant/banker from Aix en Provence, (in the south of France). He had to con-vince his parents about his choice of career, but once he did he did not need to struggle financially as many of his colleagues did. Cezanne had a violent disposition, given to rages and hallucinatory dreams, and tended to be reclusive... working in seclusion in his family home.


8 Chapter 2: Post Impressionism

MATURE PERIOD 1880-1906

Subject Matter:The subject matter of Cezanne's mature work centered on still life

settings using wax fruits, ( because he took so long real fruit would rot before he could finish), and plaster casts and views of Mont Sainte-Vic-toire a large mountain near his home in Aix.

Cezanne’s early work drew heavily from Baroque and Romantic sources. Mythological scenes with thick impasto paint displaying a constant struggle between emotion and control were the focus of the works from this period. Cezanne met Pissaro, (an Impressionist painter) in 1870 and studied with him in 1872 at Auvers-sur_Oise. After this Cezanne adopted the high keyed palette of the Impressionists and even exhibited with them in 1874. Cezanne’s personal ideas about art came into focus in the 1880’s once he was back in Aix en Provence.

Still Life with Apples. 1879-82. oil on canvas.

Mont. Sainte-Victoire from Bibemus Quarry. 1897-1900. oil on canvas.



Themes:The themes in his mature work dealt with aesthetics and falttening

the illusion of space, often breaking the rules of perspective on purpose to create a more interesting composition.

Characteristics:Cezanne employs a very charactersitic squarish brushstroke as almost

small abstract compositions in themselves to build up large representa-tive images.

Still Life with Apples and Peaches. 1905. oil on canvas.81x101 cm. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

View of Mont. Sainte Victoire. 1904-06. oil on canvas.



YOUR NOTES ON SEURAT (1859-1891)

Like Cezanne, Seurat pursued permanence of design, but with a different approach. He went as far as to integrate the new found knowledge from the fields of photography and the physics of optics with the experiments if the Impressionists in a methodical and scientific way. His method of working which in-cluded the calculation of each minute detail through hundreds of working sketches betrays his need for strong design and a governing formal order.

Seurat was trained in the academic tradition of the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts and is most lasting influences from this training were classical Greek sculpture and the paintings of Pieor della Francesca, Poussin and Ingres, (all works with an extremely strong sense of order).

At this time he also made detailed studies of the drawings of Holbein, Rembrandt and Millet. Early in his career Seurat became obsessed with the theories of colour organization, influenced by the paintings of Dela-croix, and the scientific discoveries of Chareul, Rood and Helmholz. In the trasition of Leonardo da Vinci he became an artist/scientist with the artistic goal of synthesizing the colour experiments of the Impressionists with the structure of the Renaissance trastion creating a more permanent art form.

GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891)

"The Side Show". oil on canvas.1887-1888.



Subject Matter:Seurat's mature work captured many different subjects but people tended

to be the focus.

MATURE PERIOD 1881-1891

"The Bathers". 1883-1884. oil on canvas.

"Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte". about 1884-1886



Themes:Seurat often dealt with the documenting of his life and times and of

course the exploration of compositions that were based on proportion that had a mathematical precision.

Characteristics:Seurat's compositions were always carefully planned, (after literally

hundreds of rough sketches). His finished canvases are always composed of bright colours in tiny dots each about the size of a pencil eraser.

"Chahut". 1889-1890. oil on canvas.



Van Gogh’s personal life was one of emotional turmoil and mental illness, and yet despite this he is responsible for producing some of western art’s most valued images. It was during the last few years of his life that he was able to create an incredible volume of work through an almost superhuman effort, (over 600 major works), and time.

Self Portrait. 1890. oil on canvas. Musee d’Orsay, Paris

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

YOUR NOTES ON VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

Van Gogh exemplifies the artist who makes emotional expression the focus of their art. He received no formal training as an artist and did not begin to paint seriously until quite late in his life, working unsuccessfully before that as a language

teacher in England, an evangelist in Brussels, a missionary in the Borinage region of Belgium and as an employee of an art dealer in the Hague.



PRE-IMPRESSIONIST PERIOD 1880-1885

The Potato Eaters. 1885. 34 1/4” x 45”. oil on canvas. van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

IMPRESSIONIST PERIOD 1886-1888

It was while he was in Belgium, (1880), that van Gogh first began to draw and paint.

By 1886 he went to Paris determined to be an artist. It was here that he met Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Signac, and Gauguin and was intro-duced to the work of the Impressionists. Although his first influence was Millet and the Realists his palette quickly changed to those of the Impressionist and he soon developed a love for colour far more brilliant than even the Impressionists had envisioned.



MATURE STYLE 1888-1890

His passion arose from his intense and overpowering response to the world around him, which can often be misinterpreted as primitive. His many letters to his brother Theo reveal he was acutely aware of the af-fects he achieved on canvas. At times it appears as if his works are a carefully recorded extrasensory experience.

Van Gogh died from self inflicted gunshot wounds after a bought of depression; he was 37.

His intensity and vision of the world around him, gave his work a unique quality that soon distinguished it from the work of the Impres-sionists. In fact his Impressionist period lasted less than 2 years, and it was not until he was able to combine the the palette of the Impressionists with his earlier expressiveness that we see his mature style.

The Starry Night. 1889. 74 x 93 cm. oil on canvasThe Museum of Modern Art, New York



Wheat Field and Cypress Trees. 1889. 72.3 x 91.3 cm. oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London.

Subject Matter:The subject matter of van Gogh's mature work included almost anything.

Portraits, landscapes and still life scenes were all a part of his work.

Themes:Van Gogh's work always focuses on the world that surrounded him

and used colour in a personal symbolism as a way to give more informa-tion about the subject, (ie. blue was seen by van Gogh as a very spiritual colour).

Characteristics:

Van Gogh can always be identified by his extremely indiviual brush work.... long thin wavy strokes that apply paint in an extreme impasto.



During the 1870's in Paris Gauguin became a collector of modern painting. He first began to paint as a hobby for relaxation, but soon with increasing seriousness. A painting of his was excepted for the Salon show of 1876, and he began to collect the works of the Impressionists. Through his acquaintance with Camille Pissaro he was drawn into the circle of Impressionists and exhibited with them in 1881 and 1882. In 1883 he suddenly quit his job and began to paint full time. This marked the height of his Impressionist period.

PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903)

Two Tahitian Women on the Beach.1891. oil on canvas. Musee d’Orsay, Paris

Like van Gogh Gauguin had no formal training in art and his works relied on colour to express emotional responses and meaning. Gauguin also did not begin to paint until late in his life, ( at the age of 35 ), and actually gave up a successful career as a stockbroker ( as well as his family) to pursue his artistic vision.

Born in South America to French parents Gauguin spent his early years wandering the world as a merchant marine and a sailor in the French navy. In 1871 he settled down in Paris, marrying a Danish girl and began his career as a stockbroker.




CLOISSONIST PERIOD 1888-1889

To find a world more in touch with its emotions he went to live among the peasants of Brittany at Pont Aven in western France.


The Vision After the Sermon, (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel). 1888. 28 3/4” x36 1/2”. The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

In 1886 after several years of family conflict he left and severed all ties except those of his painter friends. As he matured as a painter he became convinced that European urban society was incurably sick and unsuitable as inspiration for his art. Once again he began to wander the world in search of a simpler more ‘primitive’ pattern of life.

Subject Matter:People tended to be the focus of Gauguin's work.

Themes:Gauguin tended to search for a pure, untainted culture and also used

colour in a symbloic way.

Characteristics:Gauguin tends to use bright colours within shapes that have a very

defined darker edge.



After a year in Pont Aven Gauguin left for Tahiti. Gauguin finally went to the Marquesas Islands, where he died in poverty. His work from this time rejected the western style of naturalism, realism and Impres-sionism in favour of a more primitive art of solid simplified forms, styl-ization and decorative symbols. In reality his art remained quite Europe-an, since he could not entirely lose himself, but his art became a synthe-sis both cultures and of remembered experiences common to both.

Shortly after painting The Vision After the Sermon, Gauguin spent a short period of time with van Gogh in Arles. For a brief period the two artists worked side by side painting the country side of southern France. The relationship between the two became strained and after an incident in which van Gogh suffered an attack of mental illness Gauguin left Ar-

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? 1897. oil on canvas. 54 3/4” x 147 1/2”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ia Orana Maria, (Hail Mary). 1891. oil on canvas. 44” x 34 1/2”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York



TOULOUSE LAUTREC (1864-1901)Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec was descended from

one of the noblest and wealthiest families in south-western France. Rich and spoiled he grew up in an atmosphere of luxury and eccentricity. From an early age he showed a talent and passion for art. At the age of 14 he suffered a serious of accidents , (due to a serious disease called polypiphyseal dystrophy) that left him crippled and stunted.

The Countess Adele Tapie de Celeyran de Toulouse-Lautrec. 1887. oil on canvas Musee Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi.

At the age of 18 Lautrec entered an academic artist’s academy and met many artists from the Impressionist movement, including van Gogh. Unlike the other Impressionists he was never interested in landscape, preferring to paint the people around him, like his mother and Carmen Gaudin a Parisian working girl that caught his eye and became the model for many of his works of this period.

YOUR NOTES ON LAUTREC (1864-1901)




By the late 1880’s Lautrec was leading an unusual social life divid-ing his time between the upper class society of his mother’s apartment in Paris, nightclubs like the Moulin Rouge and The Moulin de la Galette and living in the seedy neighbourhoods of Paris. His heavy drinking was also starting to affect his poor health.


In 1892 Lautrec was given his first commission to produce a litho-graph poster for the Moulin Rouge. This was the beginning of his noto-riety as an artist and a new media that suited his sensibilities. Much of Lautrec’s graphic design work established many conventions for graphic designers in the next century.

Lautrec continued to paint the night life and brothels of Paris with the occasional vacation to the seaside until his death at the age of 36.

The Laundress. 1889. oil on canvasPrivate collection, Paris.


22 Chapter 2: Post Impressionism Valetin at the Moulin Rouge. 1889-90. oil on canvas

At The Moulin Rouge. 1892. oil on canvas The Art Institute of Chicago.

Subject Matter:Lautrec's subject matter focused on the night life of Paris.

Themes:Themes included the outcasts of society and the Bohemian lifestyles

of friends of Lautrec.

Characteristics:Lautrec's brushwork is very sktechy and has a lively energetic quality

using thin layers of paint.

need to struggle financially as many of his colleagues did ... · proaches to painting became known...

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