Claude Monet

Impression: Sunrise

1872

Oil on canvas, 48 x 63cm

Works by the Impressionists

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism

• Term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art after Impressionism

• The term was used when Fry organized the 1910 exhibition -- Manet and Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism

• Created works during the 1880s in Paris, France

• 4 Key Post-Impressionists:

– Paul Cezanne– Paul Gauguin– Vincent Van Gogh– Georges Seurat

The Post-Impressionists

• Started off painting in the Impressionist style but later developed their own highly personal style.

• The Post-Impressionists rejected the Impressionists aim of capturing fleeting moments in favour of more ambitious expression.

IMPRESSIONISM - Depict momentary sensation of light & colour- Use of a bright palette.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM Move beyond the visual/perceptual experience.

- Van Gogh & Gauguin~ Emphasis on feelings/emotions

- Cezanne & Seurat~ Emphasis on form (3D

volume) & structure

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE1839 - 1906

Father of Modern Art

Pablo Picasso

Still Life with a Bottle of Rum

1911

The experiments by Cezanne paved the foundation for the works of Picasso.

PAUL CEZANNE

Mt St Victoire

1895

Oil on canvas

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St. Victoire with the Great Pine

1885 - 87

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

- Captured the timeless beauty of Mont St. Victoire

- Best remembered for his still-lifes and landscape paintings.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Beginnings / Early works:

- Thickly painted

~ Paint was laid on with unskillful vigour with a palette knife

~ Crude appearance with heavy impasto & dark colour

- Dominant use of dark colours

~ Black, white, tans, greys, occasion touches of brilliant colour

~ Strong contrasts of black & white.

Early Works

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Portrait of the Artist’s Father

1866

Early Works

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

The Black Clock

1869 - 71

Early Works

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• 1870 - 71:

- Preoccupied with landscape painting

Landscape1870 -71

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• 1872 -- First encounters with Impressionism:

- Under the influence of Camille Pissarro:

~ Started painting outdoors

~ Stopped using palette knife

~ Juxtaposed bright colours & avoided black

~ Created a complex mosaic of delicately balanced touches of colour

Camille Pissarro

The Orchard

1872

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Landscape at Auvers

1873

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

House of the Hanged Man

1873

- Blocks of form solidly defined and kept in balance by arrangement of horizontals, verticals & diagonals

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Lessons Cezanne learnt from Impressionism:

- Use of brushstrokes as a constructive tool to model volume

- Interplay of colours

* Evolved to study the relationship between colours, tones & forms

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Reactions to Impressionism:

• Searched for underlying structure instead of mere depiction of light and outward surfaces

• Avoided depictions of modern life; painted landscapes and still life of more classical conception

• Looked for inspiration from Old Masters, such as Poussin

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St. Victoire with the Great Pine

1885 - 87

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St. Victoire with the Great Pine

1885 - 87

- Mountain = An integral part of the landscape.

- Landscape is framed by the trunk & branches of the pine tree

- Removed any distractions of the painting

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St Victoire

1885 - 87

- Modelled volumes & thrust them out into space as though he was chiselling them from rock.

* Retained the volume of objects & the firmly constructed space which he admired in the art of the past.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St Victoire Seen from Bibemus1898 - 1900

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St Victoire

1900

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mont St Victoire1902 -6

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Mt St Victoire, Seen from Les Lauves1904 - 06

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Mt St. Victoire:

- Built up pictorial structure by the schematic overlay of colours applied in short, square strokes of the brush

- Worked at creating a permanence in the sense of timelessness that also embraces solidity & flux, order & flexibility

- Aimed to take the contemporary aspects out of his subject and make them appear permanent and eternal

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Development of Cezanne’s brushwork:

Characteristic Style: Method of fine, long parallel strokes, applied in layer upon layer of transparent colour

- Developed his characteristic colour patches through range of colour and direction of brushwork

- Represented the rich diversity of planes and movements in space without losing any brilliance of colour & its reflection

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Self-Portrait with Rose Background

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Madam Cezanne in Red Armchair

1877

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Boy in a Red Waist Coat

1890 - 95

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

•1880s - 1890s: Portraits & Figures

- Impersonal / detachment from the sitter“To make a universal kind of painting, painting in which form itself is the real subject.”

- Worked & reworked, structured & restructured his pictures laboriously.

~ Right balance of form and colour

- Lacked life-like spontaneity but make up for this lack in their exquisite sense of order and harmony.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Still-life with Fruit Basket1890

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Still-life with Apples & Oranges1890 -1900

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Basket of Apples1890 - 1894

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Still-Lifes:

- Ideal subject for working slowly

- Fruits = Products of nature; Jars = Sense of craftsmanship

- Focus on shapes of objects & interference of their presence to one another

~ Fruits lost sensual appearance

~ Instead they are arranged in order of occurrence of size & colours in specific sense of order & spatial relationships

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

The Card Players1890 - 95

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

The Card Players1890 - 92

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Bathers:

- Attempt at an idealised unity between man and nature in the tradition of Old Masters

- Painted in the studio

- Figures were based on studies of models / sculptures copied in the Louvre

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

The Large Bathers

- Female bathers form triangular groups framed by inward slanting trees, which suggest a compact design

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

- Painted landscapes / still-lifes of more classical conceptions

- Search for fundamental truths & inherent structure in nature

~ Led to unprecedented degree of abstraction

- Tight & complex compositions

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

Purpose of colour:

-For structural purposes

- e.g.

~ perspective, light / shade, depth / distance, shape / solidity

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

• Way of working:

-Intense observation over a long period of time

- Explored properties of lines, planes, colours & their inter-relationships

~ e.g.

- Effect of linear direction; capacity of planes to create sensation of depth; intrinsic qualities of colour; power of colour to modify the direction and depth of lines & planes

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

PAUL CEZANNE

1839 - 1906

* Cezanne = The great structuralist among the Post-Impressionists.

“Treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone.”

- Such comments about ‘structuring’ nature would give direction to the originators of Cubism in the 20th century.