Symbolism
Fine Arts Movement 1880-1900 Linked to Romanticism.
Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art - HOMEPAGE

The Scream (1893). Edvard Munch

MEANING OF ART
For a discussion of the types,
values, and significance of the
visual arts, see: Definition of Art.

Symbolism (1880s/90s)

Definition and Meaning

Symbolism, a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin, flourished throughout Europe between 1886 and 1900 in almost every area of the arts. Initially emerging in literature, including poetry, philosophy and theatre, it then spread to music and the visual arts. Symbolist painting had strong connections with the Pre-Raphaelites and Romanticism, as well as the Aestheticism movement. Like all these movements, Symbolism was in large part a reaction against naturalism and realism. Where realists and naturalists sought to capture optical reality in all its objective grittiness, and thus focused on the ordinary rather than the ideal, Symbolists sought a deeper reality from within their imagination, their dreams, and their unconscious. Although comparatively shortlived, the movement had a big impact on 20th century European fine art, particularly on Art Nouveau, Les Nabis, and the expressionism and surrealism movements. It also influenced important painters like Whistler, Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miro, Paul Klee and Marc Chagall.

EVOLUTION OF VISUAL ART
For details of art movements
and styles, see: History of Art.
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

WORLD'S BEST ARTISTS
For details of the best modern
painters, since 1800, see:
Old Masters (Painters to 1830)
Famous Artists (1830-2010)
Greatest Sculptors.

WORLD'S GREATEST ARTWORKS
For a list of the Top 10 painters/
sculptors: Best Artists of All Time.
For the best oils/watercolours,
see: Greatest Paintings Ever.

The Symbolist Manifesto

An article entitled "Le Symbolisme", which appeared in Le Figaro French newspaper, 18 Sept 1886, was written by Jean Moréas. According to Moréas, symbolism was against "plain meanings, and matter-of-fact description", and that its aim was to "clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form." In simple terms, Symbolists thought that art should express more absolute truths which could only be accessed indirectly, using metaphorical imagery and suggestive forms containing symbolic meaning. Major symbolist artists included the French painters Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon, Gustav Moreau, and Paul Gauguin, the German Arnold Bocklin, the Belgian Fernand Khnopff, the English artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the Spaniard Adria Gual, and the Norwegian Edvard Munch.

General Characteristics

Symbolist painters and sculptors were inspired by literature and poetry of the day, as well as the history, legends, myths, Biblical stories and fables of the past. In expressing themselves, symbolist artists endowed their subjects (eg. women, heroic males, flowers, landscapes, animals), with mythological or other esoteric meanings. Many artists turned to stimulants like alcohol and drugs to fuel their imagination. Favourite symbolist subjects included: sexual issues, religious feelings, occultism, love, death, disease and sin, while decadence was a common feature.

Anti-Materialism

In many ways, Symbolism was a reaction against the souless urbanization and materialism of the Victorian Age. It rejected the narrow representational confines of Naturalism and Impressionism, preferring to roam the wider fields of mysticism, idealism, romanticism and obscurantism. Philosophically, it sought the deeper truths which lay beneath the Naturalist or Impressionist surface.

In a Nutshell

Symbolism is really an intellectual form of expressionism. Not content with using colour and shape to communicate their feelings, symbolist artists inject their compositions with messages and esoteric references. It is this narrative content which turns a work of art into a symbolist work of art.

Symbolist Artists

Romantic precursors if not mentors of Symbolist painting, included the following artists:

- John Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)
- Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
- William Blake (1757-1827)
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
- George Frederic Watts (1817-1904)
- Theodore Chasseriau (1819-1856)

The artists most closely identified with Symbolist art were those born during the decades of 1850s and 60s. It is best to classify them by nationality, since 19th Century art was primarily a regional affair.

French Symbolists

Symbolist groups in France included the Hydropathes, the Zutistes, the Decadent School, and the Arts Incoherents. Gauguin and Bernard's Synthetism (also called Cloissonism) was also closely associated with Symbolism. Artists included:

- Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898)
- Gustav Moreau (1826-1898)
- Odilon Redon (1840-1916)
- Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
- Eugene Carriere (1849-1906)
- Louis Welden Hawkins (1849-1910)
- Alexandre Seon (1855-1917)
- Alphonse Osbert (1857-1939)
- Armand Point (1861-1932)
- Lucien Levy-Dhurmer (1865-1953)
- Emile Bernard (1868-1941)
- Maurice Denis (1870-1943)
- Edgar Maxence (1871-1954)
- Gustave Adolphe Mossa (1883-1971)

Another significant figure in French symbolism was the Rosicrucian art critic Josephin Peladan, who organized the annual Salon de la Rose Croix Art exhibition (1892-97), an important showcase for symbolist paintings. The final show exhibited a set of important painting by Moreau's pupil Georges Rouault (1871-1958), although the latter is not generally associated with symbolist art.

Belgian Symbolists

Belgium was the second leading centre of symbolist painting. Belgian symbolists included:

- Felicien Rops (1833-1898)
- Xavier Mellery (1845-1921)
- Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921)
- Jan Toorop (1858-1924)
- James Ensor (1860-1949)
- Jean Delville (1867-1953)
- Leon Spilliaert (1881-1946)

British Symbolists

- Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)
- Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898)

German Symbolists

Symbolist artists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland included:

- Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901)
- Hans Thoma (1839-1924)
- Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918)
- Max Klingler (1857-1920)
- Maximilian Lenz (1860-1948)
- Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
- Franz von Stuck (1863-1928)
- Carlos Schwabe (1877-1926)

Russian Symbolists

Symbolism in Russia lagged behind its parent movement in Western Europe. Russian symbolist painters included:

- Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910)
- Mikhail Vasil'evich Nesterov (1862-1942)
- Leon Baskt (1866-1924)
- Constantin Somov (1869-1939)
- Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1869-1939)
- Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)

Other symbolist painters include Giovanni Segantini (1858-99) (Italy); Adria Gual (1872-1943) (Spain); Edvard Munch (1863-1944) (Norway); Elihu Vedder (1836-1923) (America).

Famous Symbolist Paintings

- Sir Edward Burne-Jones: The Beguiling of Merlin (1878) Tate Britain, London.
- Arnold Bocklin: Island of the Dead (1880) Museum Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig.
- Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: The Dream (1883) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
- Gustav Moreau: The Life of Humanity (1886) Gustave Moreau Museum Paris.
- Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893) National Gallery, Oslo.
- Edvard Munch: Anxiety (1894) Munch Museum, Oslo.
- Fernand Khnopff: The Sphinx (The Caresses) (1896) Brussels Arts Museum.
- Adria Gual: Morning Dew (1897) Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona.

• For biographies of established painters and sculptors in Ireland, see: Famous Irish Artists.
• For information about visual arts in the 32 counties, see: Irish Art Encyclopedia.