Symbolism

Context• Symbolist artists sought to create free interpretations of nature, expressing their individual spirit, rather than imitating nature. • They rejected the observable world in favor of a fantasy world, of forms they conjured in their own imaginations.• They used color, line, and shape as symbols of personal emotions, hence the term “symbolists.”• The Symbolists goal was not to see things, but to see through them to a significance and reality far deeper than what superficial appearance revealed. • Extremely subjective• Stood against vulgar materialism and conventional notions of industrial and middle-class society.• Focused on the unconscious, the world of dreams and fantasy• The end of the 19th century in Europe (especially Austria) is sometimes referred to as the fin-de-siècle, or end of the century. This time was characterized by flamboyant extravagance tempered with unsettling undertones. • While wide-spread prosperity lead the middle class to aspire to “the good life” of the upper class, the culture was unrestrained and freewheeling, but it masked an anxiety prompted by the significant political upheaval and an uncertain future.

Adele Bloch-BauerGustav Klimt

Gustave Moreau• Moreau was inspired by the subjects of his own dreams.• Although he depicted fantastical images, he did so in a sumptuous, realistic, and detailed style.• He frequently revisited the them of the “femme fatale,” the destructive temptress of men.• In this image, he has depicted Salome, a biblical figure who danced seductively for her step-father, King Herod, and asked in return the head of John the Baptist, whom Herod had captive.• Salome, having completed her dance, points upward to the radiant vision of John’s head, dripping with blood, yet with eyes still wide open.• The setting is not a Middle Eastern palace, but a classical Roman hall, resembling a triumphal arch.• The combination of hallucinatory imagery, eroticism, precise drawing, rich color, and opulent setting is the hallmark of his style.• His paintings influenced the Surrealists of the early 20th century.

The ApparitionMoreau, 1876. Watercolor on paper, 3’5” x 2’4”.

Odilon Redon• Another French Symbolist was Redon, who experienced an intense inner world even as a child, when he complained of “imaginary things” haunting him. • This image depicts the cyclops Polyphemus as he looks lovingly at his unrequited crush, Galatea. • How is this depiction different from Raphael’s?• In addition to colorful paintings, Redon also produced a series of charcoal drawings, etchings, and lithographs done in black and white, which he referred to as his noirs (French for “black”).

The CyclopsRedon, 1898.

Oil on canvas,2’1” x 1’8”

Henri Rousseau• Henri Rousseau (not to be confused with the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau) was not a formally trained painter, and only began painting at age 41, after retiring from working for the French government.• Although he annually showed his work with the Salon des Indépendants from 1886 onward, his work still garnered criticism from both traditional and more liberal painters due to his lack of formal training (evident in his doll-like figures, stage-like settings, and unconvincing perspective). • Although his work focuses on “exotic” locales, he had never actually travelled outside of France. His depictions are based on his imagination, and what he had seen in books.• In Sleeping Gypsy, a lion sniffs the dreaming gypsy in a desert landscape. A critical encounter impends – an encounter of the type that recalls the uneasiness of a person’s vulnerable subconscious self during sleep.

Sleeping GypsyRousseau, 1897.Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 6’7”.

The DreamRousseau, 1910.

James Ensor• Ensor was a Belgian painter, who in 1883 cofounded Les Vingts (The Twenty), a group of Belgian artists who staged unjuried exhibitions in Brussels modeled on the independent salons of Paris. • A fervent nationalist, he left the group when it began to exhibit the work of foreign artists. • Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 is probably a reaction to Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte being displayed at a Vingt exhibition.• While Seurat’s painting celebrates the leisure activities of Parisians, Ensor’s painting is a socialist commentary on the decadence and alienation of urban life at the end of the 19th century. • The image shows the artist’s pessimistic vision of how Christ would be greeted in the Belgian capital. • Christ is a small figure on a donkey, ignored by the crowd of people wearing grotesque carnival masks.• The banners read “Long Live Jesus, King of Brussels” and “Long Live Socialism.”• The clashing use of reds, greens, and blues, and the coarsely applied paint, underscore the corrupt values of modern society.

Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889.Ensor, 1888. Oil on canvas, 8’3” x 14’1”

Edvard Munch• Munch (“Moonk”) felt deeply the pain of modern life. • He also believed humans helpless in the face of the forces ofdeath and love. He focused on themes of jealousy, loneliness, fear, desire, and despair.• His goal was to describe the conditions of “modern psychic life,” as he put it. He successfully used color, line, and figural distortion to achieve an emotionally expressive quality.• What is disturbing looking about the man?• The screaming figure only takes up a small amount of space in the composition. How does the rest of the work continue and enhance the “feel” of the man’s primal scream?

• “I stopped and leaned against the balustrade, almost dead with fatigue. Above the blue-black fjord hung the clouds, red as blood and tongues of fire. My friends had left me, and alone, trembling with anguish, I became aware of the vast, infinite cry of nature.” -Munch

The Scream(originally titled

Despair)Munch, 1893. Tempera and

pastels on cardboard,

3’ x 2’5”

Gustav Klimt• Gustav Klimt was from Vienna, Austria, and epitomized the style of fin-de-siécle through flamboyant decoration tempered with unsettling undertones.• This painting depicts a couple locked in an embrace. The setting is ambiguous, with little sense of depth beyond the couple.• We see very little of the couple, only heads and arms. The rest is flattened into areas of bold pattern. • Notice that the man is covered in rectangular patterns, whereas the woman is covered in circular patterns. • Klimt’s work was at times controversial because of it’s overtly erotic imagery.• During this period of Klimt’s career, known as the Gold Period, he utilized gold leaf on the surface of his artwork. He may have been influenced by:-Trips to Venice and Ravenna, where he would have seen golden mosaics-His father and brother, who were both gold engravers

The KissKlimt, 1908.

Oil on canvas, 5’11” square.