Post-Impressionism Dr. Schiller/Art History 1
Post Impressionism: Experimenting With Form and Color By 1886, most critics and the general public accepted Impressionists as serious artists Christy Tran 2
1. Vincent van Gogh 2. Paul Gauguin 3. George Seurat 4. Paul Cézanne these two focused on exploring the expressions of formal elements like line, color, form these two focused on being analytical in orientation Each painter originally based works on Impressionist precepts and methods, but ideas of these artists and others came to be known as Post-Impressionism Christy Tran 3
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) mostly self-taught Studied colors and distorted forms to express emotions and nature Suffered from epileptic seizures, brother Theo was close and supported his works and we know about Vincent through their personal letters Used thick, intense color, made paintings textile-like, with bold, vibrant, and swirling brushstrokes Christy Tran 494
VINCENT VAN GOGH The Night Café 1888, Oil on canvas 2 4½ x 3. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Gardner plate 29-33 Christy Tran 505
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Painted year before his death The sky is not realistically depicted, but rather tried to show the huge, vastness of the universe with the stars and the tiny earth below it This view was a real one from the asylum he was staying in, and it was very personal to him Gardner plate 29-34 VINCENT VAN GOGH, Starry Night, 1889. oil on canvas Approximately 2 5 x 3¼ Museum of Modern Art, New York Gardner plate 29-34 Christy Tran 52 7
Vincent van Gogh Starry Night 1889 oil on canvas 2 ft. 5 in. x 3 ft. 1/4 in.
Paul Gauguin did not depict scenes realistically, but rather based them on his own perspective, experience, emotion he had towards them; some call this his inner vision) Believed color above all determined the artists power and creativity Unlike Van Gogh s intense brush stokes, he used a flatter, more dissolving, abstract pattern Christy Tran 53 9
PAUL GAUGUIN Where Do We Come from? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Gardner plate 29-36 10 Christy Tran 56
This huge mural shows his artistic methods very well: Use of flat shapes and pure unmodulated color Very pessimistic, depressing mood, which shows human mortality with the Tahitian women and their local myths (life cycle with children, young women, and elders), a tropical landscape, but mostly with flat areas of color, shows intensity and lushness 11 56
This was his Magnus Opus ( great work ) before death The young woman in the middle picking a fruit shows the simple joys of life, pleasures, happiness of life The idol with arms up in the back is a cultural belief representing death, like the old woman with hands on her head Christy Tran 12 56
George Seurat Frenchman, very intellectual paintings, Had a very strict system of painting focusing on color analysis and theory- pointillism or divisionism Rather than harsh colors and brushstrokes, he organized colors and characterized Impressionism as a calculated arrangement based on the color theory Christy Tran 13 57
George Seurat Method: applied in unmixed dots (kind of like pixels), viewable from far, rather than close so that one s eye would blend the dots into visible, viewable shapes Christy Tran 14 57
GEORGES SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886, Oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, 6 9 x10 (big) Gardner plate 29-38 15 58
Very recreational theme of Parisian middle-class, which is like the Impressionists Used light and shadow, yet seems very rigid and remote Used pointillism, as well as very geometric forms (ex: female form is very cylindrical) The woman and child are the center of the image, while it seems all the others revolve around her Christy Tran 59 16
Paul Cézanne He said that the effects of distance and depth should not be achieved by traditional methods but rather through color patterns He explored the properties of, lines, planes and color and how they were interrelated For his method of 3-D, he used small patches in different hues or contrasting colors 60 17
Mount Sainte Victoire photograph
PAUL CEZANNE. Mont Sainte-Victoire 1902-1904. oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2 3½ x 2 11¼ Gardner plate 29-39 Christy Tran 63 19
He became known as an outdoor painter, famed for his landscapes, he tried to keep the bright, freshness of Impressionism He created a series of paintings of Mont Sainte- Victoire (we will see this next) which was near his home, using important techniques such as: 1. Color patches--to capture the true colors (not capturing the moment but the permanence) 2. Varying the colors (cooler colors was the sky, warmer colors were the ground) very flat 61 20
3. Multiple viewpoints- (different perspectives) as if we were actually viewing the scene, not through a camera with only one viewpoint 4. Underlying shapes- of an object, he assembled small geometric shapes combined as a landscape His still lifes also used flat color patches and underlying shapes, along with multiple viewpoints and their slightly odd shape of the fruits show this (inspired cubists) 61 21
The many Mont Sainte-Victoires he did: (this is the one in GARDNER) Christy Tran 62 22
PAUL CEZANNE. The Basket of Apples, Ca. 1895. oil on canvas, 2 3/8 x2 7 The Art Institute of Chicago Gardner plate 29-40 23 64
Objects lose individuality and became more geometric He had to use fake apples, because he analyzed the shape so much that real ones began to rot Studied arrangements from different viewpoints so that the items themselves don t look realistic, like an architecture of color 24 65