Post-impressionism
also: Postimpressionism
Post-impressionism is the name for the diverse French painting of roughly 1886 to 1905, running from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. The artists involved had absorbed Impressionism's lessons about light and outdoor vision but rejected its pursuit of the fleeting, naturalistic moment. Each answered differently: Paul Cézanne rebuilt landscape and still life into lasting geometric structure, Georges Seurat systematized color into a scientific dot technique, Vincent van Gogh charged the visible world with emotional color and agitated touch, and Paul Gauguin turned to symbol, flat pattern and non-Western sources. The artists shared no program and exhibited under their own banners, yet together they freed painting from describing appearances alone, opening the road to Fauvism, Expressionism and Cubism. The label itself was coined by the English critic Roger Fry for his 1910 London exhibition 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists'.
![Avec ce tableau, Henri Rousseau commémore le centenaire de la Première République française de 1792 ]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henri%20Rousseau%20(French)%20-%20A%20Centennial%20of%20Independence%20-%20Google%20Art%20Project.jpg)
Defining characteristics
- Structure over transience: solid, geometricized form instead of the fleeting moment
- Arbitrary, expressive color chosen for emotion or symbol rather than optical accuracy
- Systematic or heightened brushwork - Seurat's dots, Van Gogh's loaded strokes
- Flattened space and decorative patterning, with bold cloisonnist outlines
- Symbolic or psychological subject matter beneath observed appearance
- Emphasis on the two-dimensional painted surface
Key figures
- Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) — Painter who rebuilt landscape and still life into lasting geometric structure
- Georges Seurat (1859-1891) — Painter who systematized color into the scientific pointillist technique
- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) — Painter who charged the visible world with emotional color and agitated touch
- Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) — Painter who turned to symbol, flat pattern and non-Western sources
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) — Painter-printmaker who carried the style into posters and modern nightlife
Example works
- A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte — Georges Seurat (1884-1886)
- The Starry Night — Vincent van Gogh (1889)
- Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? — Paul Gauguin (1897-1898)
Sources
- Post-Impressionism - Wikipedia encyclopedia