Post-Impressionism
Neo-Impressionist and Post Impressionist Painting.
Visual Arts Guide

Post-Impressionist Art

In fine art, the term Post-Impressionist denotes the work of a group of French artists attempting to progress beyond the pure (or narrow) Impressionism of Claude Monet and his followers, during the late 19th century and early years of the 20th century. Famous artists traditionally associated with Post-Impressionism include: Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), to which we may arguably add the painter and printmaker Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940). Specific schools such as Fauvism, Pointillism and Les Nabis are also Post-Impressionist.

Georges Seurat, along with his disciple Paul Signac (1863-1935), was the founder of Neo-Impressionism, the name given to the Divisionist technique (also called pointillism) which aimed to establish a scientific basis for Impressionism through the optical mixture of colours. Divisionism adhered to the colour theories of M Chevreul, as elaborated in his 1839 book De La Loi du Contraste Simultanée des Couleurs (concerning the law of the simultaneous contrast of colours). Instead of mixing colour on the palette and then applying it to the canvas, a process believed to reduce luminosity, Divisionists added tiny dabs of pure colour directly to the canvas, side by side, thus allowing them to 'mix' in the viewer's eye. Among Seurat's famous Pointillist pictures are Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grange Jatte (1884) and Bathers at Asnieres (1884). Camille and Lucien Pissarro were also occasional practitioners of Divisionism.

Paul Cezanne, considered by some art historians to be the father of modern art for his influence over Picasso and Cubism, became determined to take a classical approach to plein-air painting as practised by the Impressionists. His carefully structured landscape compositions and still-lifes were built up in different chunks or planes at a painstakingly slow speed (the fruit in his still life paintings used to rot while he painted it!), so as to optimize the effects that each plane brought to the overall composition. This subjugation of natural content to form and structure, had a huge impact on Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who developed it further into their Cubist philosophy of art. Famous works by Cezanne include: The Cardplayers (1892), Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Trees and a House, Pears on a Chair (1882), Still Life with Basket (1890), The Boy in the Red Waistcoat (1894), Still Life with Plaster Cupid (1895), and Les Grandes Baigneuses (The Large Bathers) (1900-05).

Vincent Van Gogh only painted for the last ten years of his tragically short life, but in total contrast to the snail-like Cezanne, once he started he couldn't stop, painting nearly 900 pictures at an average of one every four days. Most are autobiographical, inadvertently charting his emotional decline and ultimate collapse. His painting demonstrates an emotional intensity of colour and brushstroke, as he attempted to convey his personal feelings of what he saw.

All his life is in his paintings, (especially his self-portraits) from the dark and enclosed coarseness of The Potato Eaters (1885), to the soaringly optimistic yellows of his Sunflowers series, followed by the gnarled twisted branches of The Oliver Pickers (1889), and the threatening black birds in Wheatfield with Crows (1890). Not surprisingly, Van Gogh became an icon for following generations of Expressionists whose art purposefully distorted form and colour in order to express feelings. Other famous works by Van Gogh include: The Old Mill (1888), Bridge at Arles (1888), View of Arles with Irises (1888), The Bedroom at Arles (1888), Sunflowers (1888), Cypresses (1889), View of Arles (Flowering Orchards) (1889), The Olive Trees (1889), Starry Night (1889), Portrait of Dr Gachet (1890).

Edouard Vuillard was an extremely gifted and modern painter best known for his magical 'intimist' style of pattened flickering colour. His masterpieces include the genre paintings In the Garden (1894-5) and Women Sewing Before a Garden (1895). A pioneer of simple design and tonal sympathy. One of the most underrated artists, although his works are in prestigious collections such as the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery in Washington DC and the Art Institute of Chicago.

British Post-Impressionists: The Camden Town Group

Founded in 1911 in London by Walter Sickert (1860-1942), the Camden Town Group (named after Sickert's down-at-heel home district in North London) specialized in realist scenes of city life executed in a range of Post-Impressionist styles and held three exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery in 1911 and 1912. Group members included: Robert Bevan (1865-1925), Spencer Gore (1878-1914), Harold Gilman (1876-1919), and Charles Isaac Ginner (1878-1952).

Les Nabis (1891-1899)

The late nineteenth century school known as Les Nabis, was a group of Post-Impressionist artists and illustrators based in Paris, who became highly influential in the area of graphic art. Their focus on design was echoed in the parallel Art Nouveau movement. Important members of Les Nabis included Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Ker Xavier Roussel (1867-1944), Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Maurice Denis (1870-1943) and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940).

The Group of Seven (1920-1960s)

Strongly influenced by Post-Impressionism, the Group of Seven were Canadian landscape artists who created bold, highly-coloured paintings, often infusing their compositions with symbolic meanings. The members of the group included Tom Thomson, as well as Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), AJ Casson (1898-1992), Lionel Fitzgerald (1890-1956), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), Lawren Harris (1885-1970), Edwin Holgate (1892-1977), AY Jackson (1882-1974), JEH MacDonald (1873-1932), and FH Varley (1881-1969).

• For other art movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art

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