Post-Impressionism

Europe and North America in the Age of Social Progress

Generic name for art that came after Impressionism.

Admires the light and color use seen in impressionistic art.

Contemporary life, historical events, and spiritual themes present in P.I. subject matter.

Noted especially for being highly personal, i.e. there is no one set P.I. style.

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait

with Bandaged Ear.

Wanted “to make impressionism something solid, like the art in the museums”.

Known today for bridging the art of the 19th century with 20th century abstraction, esp. Cubism.

Best known for block-like forms and patches of color. Works suggest both the 2D and 3D simultaneously.

The Basket of Apples, 1890-1894.

Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, ca. 1885-1887.

Impressionism meets

Classicism. Contemporary

Parisian figures in grand

poses inspired by the

Romans.

Very scientific approach to

painting called pointilism.

Machine like appearance

appealed to modern

sensibilities.

Detail of The Bathers at Asnieres,

1884.

Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the

Grand Jatte, oil on canvas, 1884.

Detail of the Pointilism technique.

The epitome of the troubled artist.

His intense emotions, his strong heart, his passion is evident in his use of vivid, contrasting colors and turbulent, thick brushstrokes.

Extremely religious; devotion to the divine often in the content of his works.

“As my work is, so am I”.

Sunflowers, Munich version,

1888.

Van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889,

"Looking at the stars always makes me dream…Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

~van Gogh

Van Gogh, The Red Vineyard, 1888

Highly critical of modern, material, industrial society after losing his stockbroker job in 1882.

Left Paris to paint people and places that were closer to nature. “Free of civilized influences”.

• Brittany

• Martinique

• Tahiti

Co-developed synthetism, combining imaginative/religious/ancient/ non-western images with emotional color.

Two Tahitian Woman, 1899

The Yellow Christ, 1889.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897.

Define the formal and iconographic

characteristics of the major post-

impressionist artists.

Discuss how these artists were influenced

by realism, impressionism, japonisme, as

well as the three revolutions (political,

industrial, and scientific).