A Review of Three Key Works of The Post-impressionism Trend

The Post Impressionism Movement occurred in the 1880’s until around 1914. Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and George Seurat are three of the most well known men from this time period. Symbolic and highly personal meanings were particularly important to Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh. Rejecting interest in depicting the observed world, they instead looked to their memories and emotions in order to connect with the viewer on a deeper level. Structure, order, and the optical effects of color dominated the aesthetic vision of Post-Impressionists like Paul Cézanne, and George Seurat. Rather than merely represent their surroundings, they relied upon the interrelations of color and shape to describe the world around them. Each artist had many great artworks but three of the most prominent of the time are The Bathers, by Paul Cezanne, Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat. Each had its own unique style and message that gave these artists credit and made them famous, even still today. They influenced and inspired many people and other artists looked up to them as well.

The term “Post Impressionism” applies to a wide range of art styles that followed the Impressionist movement. In this era painting went to a whole new level and became a means of escape into the artist's mind and soul. Primarily, the Post-Impressionism developed between the years 1886 and 1905. Post-Impressionism unfolded as a reaction to Impressionist’s concern for the natural illustration of color as well as light. Due to its focus on abstract variety, Post-Impressionism includes Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism, Pont-Aven School, and Synthetism, along with later Impressionists' work, too. The term was coined in 1910 by the English critic and painter Roger Fry for an exhibition of late 19th-century French painting, drawing, and sculpture that he organized at the Grafton Galleries in London.

After considering more substantive terms such as ”Expressionism,” Fry settled on ‘Post-Impressionism’ for the title of the exhibition, as this did no more than point out that the Post-Impressionists came after the Impressionists. By 1912 the movement had moved to England, and Russia, too. In the work of all the artists in the exhibition, the abstract concerns of harmony and the two-dimensional arrangement of forms took precedence over naturalism. Three of the most famous of these artists are Paul Cezanne, George Seurat, and Vincent Van Gogh. These men were the leaders of the movement creating, many amazing and unique masterpieces. Each of them had many famous artworks but three among the best, most famous, and most influential are The Bathers, by Paul Cezanne, Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat. These three men had a tremendous impact on art during and after their times.

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands. Most of the members of his family were clergymen and at a young age he went to work for an art dealer. [1]”In 1873 he was posted to the firm’s London branch and in 1875 he was transferred to the Paris office he began to learn about both Old Master and conventional contemporary painting. His spiritual sincerity developed to an utmost in London and Paris where his appreciation of art extended. After being fired from the art dealership he went to England to work as a teacher.” Dissatisfied, he returned back to his home in the Netherlands and then went to Amsterdam to become a minister. After his attempt to follow a calling to the ministry did not work out he went to see a famous painter for inspiration. As a result of this visit he decided he wanted to be a painter. By 1881 he was known for his drawings which involve hard, graphic outlines and hatched shadowing. He either drew from books or had people model for him and later on began to do still lifes. Van Gogh moved to Paris to become inspired and to create art. [2]“In February 1888, sick of Paris and exhausted, van Gogh moved to Arles, in the south of France, in order to realize his original ambition of becoming a peasant painter in his own way. As was his custom, he explored his new environment by making drawings and paintings.” He passed away on July 29, 1890. Over time he became more well known for his art works and started a career out of it. One of his famous works is titled Starry Night, which is oil on canvas.

[3]“In the summer of 1889 van Gogh painted one of his most famous works, Starry Night (New York, MOMA). In this work he reverted to an old idea, that of painting a nocturnal sky, which he had attempted and abandoned the year before in Starry Night over the Rhône.” This painting has substantial religious connotations that were emphasized by a spire of a church that in reality was not even there. It portrays a view from an east-facing window of his room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence a little before the sun rise. This piece is filled with colors of yellows, blues, greens, blacks, and lines all around. It is said to be painted from memory.

[4]“Van Gogh depicted the view at different times of day and under various weather conditions, including sunrise, moonrise, sunshine-filled days, overcast days, windy days, and one day with rain. He then chose sunrise to paint his work of art. The mountains and the low rolling hills on the right represent the Alpilles Mountains. Starry Night is the only nocturnal piece he ever did from his bedroom window.”

There is a town at the bottom of the picture where you can notice houses and a church. The stars are painted as being bright, and stand out. The sky is painted blue and it seems he added in some swirls of grey to make it look like there is wind and clouds. The sky keeps the viewer's’ attention and their eyes moving around the painting. The church in the center of the piece is tall and towers over the smaller building in the town. This creates a feeling of capaciousness and remoteness. To the left of the painting there is a tall dark figure that is up close to the viewer. It is imprecise as to what it is, and this leaves the viewer to decide on their own. It also creates depth and sensation(which creates a feeling of excitement and interest) of the painting. A Starry Night represents Gogh’s interpretation of the night sky. This work of art has become extremely popular throughout the years. He wanted to encourage and inspire others through his art, and he did so.

Another famous artist from the Post-Impressionist movement was George Seurat. He was born in Paris, France, on December 2, 1859. He was the youngest of three and mostly lived with his mother. In 1870 he began to have an interest in art and was encouraged to take lessons from one of his uncles. Five years later, he began precise training when he attended the local municipal art school. The curriculum was focused on drawing and composition, and most of Seurat’s time was spent sketching from plaster casts and live models.

[5]“Seurat spent his free time conducting his own artistic studies and frequently visited museums and libraries throughout Paris. He also sought instruction from the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose specialty was large-scale classical, allegorical scenes. He spent most of his summers in different places getting inspired and creating art works. Seurat’s artistic charisma was associated with qualities which are extreme and delicate sensibility, and has a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind.”

He concluded that a painter could use color to create conformity and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music. He theorized that the scientific application of color was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He was among the first artists to make a systematic and devoted use of color theory, and his technical innovations influenced many of his peers. Seurat was only 31 when he died on March 29, 1891.

One of Seurat’s most famous paintings in called A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. It is found in the Art Institute of Chicago. The Island of La Grande Jatte is in Paris, lying in the Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret, a short distance from where currently stands La Défense business district. The painting is large: 207.6 cm × 308 cm (81.7in × 121.25 in). [6]“Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte took him two years to complete. Many times the artist visited La Grande Jatte, making drawings of the figures, color, light, and more than thirty oil sketches to prepare for the final work.” He used a technique called divisionism/pointillism which consists of dots of contrasting color and when is viewed from far away creates a luminous glistening effect. He focused on the landscape of the park. He paints it so that most figures are in shadow; these figures being woman, men, children, and even dogs. A little girl in the center of the painting is the only one who is not under a shadow. She is dressed in white and is staring at the viewer. The clothing all the people are wearing can represent the nature of French society at the time. It was said that Seurat painted this piece is three separate stages. He started the first stage of the work in 1884. [7]“Seurat mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. In the second stage during 1885 and 1886 Seurat dispensed with the earth pigments and also limited the number of individual pigments in his paintings.” His palette consisted of four colors which are emerald green, cobalt blue, vermillion, and zinc chromate (zinc yellow). This painting gained popularity and was very well known in the art world and is still is considered important.

The last Another famous artist from the Post-Impressionist movement with whom I will deal in this paper is a French man named Paul Cezanne. He was born on January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence. When he was ten years old he began to study at the Ecole Saint-Joseph School and in 1852 he went to Collège Bourbon, which both were in Aix-en-Provence. When his father bought an estate Cezanne set up a studio and worked from there. He also attended a school for design from 1858 to 1861. He moved to Paris in April of 1861 to pursue a career in art. [8]“In 1863 he participated in the Salon des Refusés with Manet, Pissarro, Jongkind, Guillaumin and others, and during their first meeting, in 1866, Manet praised his still-lifes. Cézanne submitted works for the official Salon every year at this time, but was refused on each occasion. Extremely disappointed, he moved continually between Aix and Paris from 1864 to 1870.” In 1869 he met a woman named Hortense Fiquet who soon became his mistress, who he eventually married.

After buying a house in Les Lauves, on a hill dominating Aix, where he built a studio and spent most of his time His work gained popularity as he continued to produce portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and watercolors, doing many works of art now well known, actively releasing his work and doing many exhibits. Cezanne was high strung, hesitant, and reflective.Also, he was extremely volatile, being especially angered by any opposition to his own opinions, and his personality created conflicts with many of his of his friends and fellow artists.

Paul Cezanne Died on October 23, 1906. While working in a field he got caught in a storm. During the downpour he collapsed and was brought home by a driver who passed by. After his housekeeper got him to regain circulation he was put to bed. A couple of days later he got pneumonia and died. He left a large legacy behind him and he is a well-known artist today.

The name of Cezanne’s famous art work which I will discuss in this paper is The Bathers. This is an oil on canvas painting that was first exhibited in 1906. The painting is large, 210.5 cm × 250.8 cm (82 7/8 in × 98 3/4 in). It is located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [9]“This painting is the largest out of his series called “Bather”. He worked on this particular piece for seven years and it was unfinished at his time of death. With each version of the bathers, Cézanne moved away from the conventional presentation of this subject matter in painting, intentionally creating works which would not appeal to the novice viewer.” He did this in order to avoid fleeting fads and give a timeless quality to his work, and in so doing paved the way for future artists to disregard current trends and paint pieces which would appeal equally to all generations.

[10]“The hypothetical nude females in the painting give it pressure and quantity. It has symmetrical dimensions and the variation of the nude forms to the triangular pattern of the trees and river. It has colors of blue, orange, white, beige, and green. All the people are gathered by a pond or lake bathing themselves. The male nudes go back to an important part of Cezanne's boyhood to which he often returned in memory: the enchanted days spent with Zola and other friends on the bank of the river, swimming, playing, talking, and reciting verses in which women were the objects of romantic fantasy.”10

The grouping of the female nudes, whose postures reproduce the poses of models he had drawn in the art school or of statues in the Louvre, suggests in its extreme formality and closure an intense constraint which is unique in his art. [11] The atmosphere of this painting is strange and beautiful - the landscape is largely bluish, a soft haze in which sky and water and vegetation merge and by which the masterfully drawn figures are delicately overcast. This painting was very influential and inspired many people and other artists and is still prominent today.

Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and George Seurat were three very important men during the Post-Impressionist Movement. The artworks they created were outstanding and left an impact on art and on many people since their time. They all did many things during this time period to help art develop and change. They influenced many artists of that and of later times, and they even influenced each other.. Art can be defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. George Seurat, Paul Cezanne, and Vincent Van Gogh all created wonderful art that meets the criteria of this definition..

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