Post-Impressionism developed in reaction to Impressionism's focus on accurately depicting the natural world through light and color. Post-Impressionists aimed to restore subjectivity and shape to art by creating abstract representations of reality that emphasized how art differs from nature. Key Post-Impressionist artists included Van Gogh, who blended Divisionism with Impressionism and expressed emotion through vibrant colors and brushstrokes; Gauguin, whose primitivist style synthesized feeling with form; and Cézanne, whose still lifes and landscapes treated nature as geometric shapes and influenced the development of Cubism.

1. Post Impressionism
PRESENTED BY:
PRESENTED BY:
RAHUL JHA
RAHUL JHA
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2. REVIEW
How was Impressionism influenced by
Japanese Woodcuts?
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Remember C-FID!
C-cropping
F-flatness
I-Intimate moments
D-Decorative patterns

3. Hiroshige, Plum Orchard
1857
van Gogh, 1887

4. Post-Impressionism
Differences between Impress. And PostImpress.:
• Impressionists focused on reproducing the natural world but
lost the use of line, shape and color (only reflected)
• Post-Impressionists wanted to restore color and shape to art,
while others wanted to restore subjectivity rather than painting
from nature.
• The P.I. created abstract versions of reality to reinforce that
art is DIFFERENT from nature (breaking with the tradition
since the Renaissance)
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5. TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892–1895*. Oil on
canvas, 4’ x 4’ 7”. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
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6. Toulouse-Lautrec
• Short in stature (only 4’6”), turns to art scene in
Monmartre
• Was inspired by Degas (Japanese
prints=flatness)
• Also POSTERS! Elevated graphic arts!!!

7. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The Hangover
(Suzanne Valadon),
1887-1889. Oil on canvas.

8. SUZANNE VALADON
• 1894, 1st woman painter admitted into the Societe
National des Beaux Arts—her son, Maurice Utrillo will
eclipse her as a painter
• Worked as a model for Renoir, Lautrec, etc.—Learned
by watching but had her own style
• Degas was the first to buy one of her paintings

9. Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923*

11. GEORGES SEURAT, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884–
1886*. Oil on canvas, 6’ 9” x 10’. The Art Institute of Chicago
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12. Seurat
• Known for Pointilism (Divisionism is the proper
term!) using small dabs of complementary colors
directly ON THE CANVAS rather than mixed
prior
• Complementary colors side by side mix in the
viewers eye with greater luminosity
• Seurat is influenced by Chevreul’s new idea called
COLOR THEORY

14. VINCENT VAN GOGH, Starry Night, 1889*. Oil on canvas, 2’ 5”
x 3’ 1/4”. Museum of Modern Art, New York
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15. VAN GOGH
• Trained to be an art dealer but then left to become a
missionary (then a painter). Socialist--progress=alienation
• Largely self-taught
• Supported by his art dealer brother, Theo
• KNOW ABOUT HIS STYLE—vibrant colors, swirling
brushstrokes, thick globs of paint (IMPASTO)
• Took Seurat’s Divisionism and blended it with Impressionism
• EXPRESSIONIST– the artist’s feelings are core and reality is
subjective

16. VINCENT VAN GOGH, Night Café, 1888*. Oil on canvas, 2’ 4 1/2” x
3’. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven
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17. • Associated color
With mood
Yellow=happiness
• Saw color as music
• 1st sunflowers were
Painted for Gauguin’s
Bedroom as deco

18. GAUGUIN
•Originally a stockbroker with 5 children but left his
family to pursue art on his own in Paris, then leaves
Europe for Tahiti to paint
•His style: inspiration from stained glass, Japanese
prints, and cloisonne enameling
•PRIMITIVISM--art movement of late 19th century
characterized by exaggerated body proportions,
animal totems, geometric designs and stark contrasts
•He considered his style synthetismSynthesized the subject with the artist’s
Feeling, using line, shape, color, etc.

19. PAUL GAUGUIN, Vision after the Sermon or Jacob Wrestling with
the Angel, 1888*. Oil on canvas, 2’ 4 3/4” x 3’ 1/2”. National Gallery of
Scotland, Edinburgh.
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20. Gauguin, Day of the God, 1894*

21. PAUL GAUGUIN, Where Do We Come From? What Are We?
Where Are We Going? 1897*. Oil on canvas, 4’ 6 3/4” x 12’ 3”.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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22. CÉZANNE
•“Father” of Modern Art (contact with the
Impressionists but creates his own “language”.
Known as a Post-Impressionist)
•Took landscape paintings into “something solid and
durable”
•His still lifes will influence Cubism (Braque and
Picasso)
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23. 4 Techniques used by Cezanne
1. Color patches—used to capture true colors of
surrounding land.
2. Varied colors– warmer colors placed closer towards
view, while cooler colors receding in background but
did not use the theory of atmospheric perspective and
backgrounds are flat.
3. Multiple viewpoints—not like a camera, more real
(Cubist)
4. Underlying shapes—rectangles, triangles, etc. “Treat
nature as a cylinder, sphere, or cone”.

24. PAUL CÉZANNE, Mont Sainte-Victoire, c. 1885-87*.

25. PAUL CÉZANNE, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902–1904*. Oil on
canvas, 2’ 3 1/2” x 2’ 11 1/4”. Philadelphia Museum of Art
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26. PAUL CÉZANNE, Basket of Apples, ca. 1895*. Oil on canvas
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27. Cezanne, The Large Bathers, 1906*