Post-Impressionism is one time period that encompasses various different styles of art and architecture. These styles include Neo-impressionism which was made famous by Georges Seurat and symbolism by Paul Gauguin.
There was a focus on the artists’ vision during the period and what they wanted to explain through their paintings. Many movements rose from the influence of Post-Impressionism like Expressionism and Feminist Art, which has a more contemporary style than Expressionism.
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Post-Impressionism in the Victorian Era
Artists during this time aimed to look into memories and emotions to create art. They felt that by doing so, they could connect with the views on a different level. To build this connection, the artists did not just recreate a scene.
Their paintings brought out the importance of the colors used, shadows, the timing when they painted the scene, and the particular details of the subject which will influence the viewer to look at the piece in a certain way.
Some very prominent artists of this period were Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac. While their styles differed from each other, most of these artists painted abstract forms which later gave a hint of the radical approaches to painting which would take place in the near future.
Beginning of Post-Impressionism in Victorian times
Claude Monet was one of the first Post-Impressionist painters. His radical way of thinking changed the landscape of art and painting. He brought in the style of visual expression. This can be seen in Impression, Sunrise where Monet painted the sun’s rays exactly how it was in real life with the brush stroke being easily made out.
This set a trend and thus began the age of giving equal importance to the technique of painting as well as the subject of the painting. Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, and Edgar Degas were some of the artists who were associated with this kind of painting technique.
However, critics felt that more importance was given to eat method of painting rather than the subject matter of the painting. This led to a dissent among these painters who were then grouped together and called the Post-Impressionists.
Even though these artists were called the Post-Impressionists, their styles of painting varied from each other. In fact, many of the painters in this time period were considered rivals in their approach to art.
Prominent Artists of the Post-Impressionism Movement
Georges Seurat – Seurat invented a type of painting known as Pointillism. The painting is made with dots or points.
Seurat theorized the individual marks would blend in the viewers’ eye and form a whole picture with no blemish. An example is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Paul Gauguin – Paul Gauguin, with the help of his roommate in Paris, van Gogh started Synthetism. In this form of painting, the subject matter and the visual appearance of the painting are determined by color, line, and form. In essence, the artist’s true feelings towards the painting will be synthesized in the painting.
Gauguin did not use the method of shading, or modeling. Instead, he drew string lines and colors with no shading. The paintings looked two-dimensional. Due to the lack of models of physical in muses, the paintings were from memory or imagination.
Paul Cezanne – Cezanne’s style of painting was in the pictorial form where he focused mainly on still life paintings, portraits, and landscapes.
The structures in these paintings are geometric.
Vincent van Gogh– van Gogh was considered a neo-impressionist and a post-impressionist artist.
He believed in bringing out the inner meaning and spirituality of people in the artwork. van Gogh’s paintings led to Fauvism and the Abstract Expressionist painters used his techniques for their paintings.
Later Developments in the Post-Impressionist Movement
The artists associated with the movement were residing mainly in France. Hence, it can be said that the movement by itself was centered in France. Many painters developed the styles that were born during the time period. For example, Edward Munch used Symbolism as his inspiration and used bold colors and strokes for his paintings.
By 1910, movements like Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism came about. Each movement was inspired mainly by Symbolism.
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