Presentation by Dr. Marc A. Cirigliano
Post-Impressionism: Classic and Romantic
Edgar Degas
Woman Bathing
1886
oil on canvas
Anonymous and faceless woman. A photographic moment, as she is not posed, but performing her normal daily routine of bathing.
As we discussed in the previous presentation, Degas is focusing on color, texture and contrasting different shapes.
The history of art in Paris takes off from here, to be sure.
Image from Wikipedia:
Post-Impressionist styles flow naturally out of all the experiments in Impressionism.
With the emphasis on depicting the visual experience of light and color, the emphasis is no longer on the object. The emphasis is on the essence of the experience for both the artist and the viewer.
As such, there are two threads of development after Impressionism which carry into the 20th century:
1. Classic – Seurat, Cezanne and Cubism
Analyze or comment on the visual world
Metaphor of the mirror
2. Romantic – Gauguin, Van Gogh, Symbolism, Fauves & Expressionism
Express the inner self
Metaphor of the lamp
Main Lasting Developments with Impressionism
Click on the image to start the video.
Georges Seurat
(1859-1891)
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte–1884
1884-86
oil on canvas
81-3/4 x 121-1/4 inches
207.5 x 308.1 cm
The Art Institute of Chicago
Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – 1884 ," in Smarthistory, December 4, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/georges-seurat-a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884/.
Georges Seurat, with his pointillist technique used the Impressionist advanced with color and light but attempted to apply the then science of optics in creating a bright, vibrant canvas.
Seurat
in Post-Impressionist “classic” vein.
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Vincent van Gogh
The Potato Eaters
1885
oil on canvas
82 x 114 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Vincent van Gogh Foundation
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, " The Potato Eaters ," in Smarthistory, January 8, 2020, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/van-gogh-potato-eaters/.
“I have tried to emphasize that those people, eating their potatoes in the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labor, and how they have honestly earned their food.
“I have wanted to give the impression of a way of life quite different from that of us civilized people. Therefore I am not at all anxious for everyone to like it or to admire it at once.”
Excerpt from a letter to his brother Theo, 1885, cited from Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, p.29.
Van Gogh
in the Post-Impressionistic Romantic vein.
Image from Wikipedia:
Vincent van Gogh
The Sower with Setting Sun
1888
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Here wee see impressionist color applied with the comma brushstroke, but fully focused on painting the objects, the physical reality of the scenes.
Notice the setting sun, the tree all gnarled with large branches cut off and a solitary figure.
Also notice the new branches springing out while the man plants seeds for new crops.
We have two directions, then: destruction and creation.
This can be explained by Van Gogh’s social relationships brought on by his mental illness with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.
Dr. Peter C. Whybrow, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, explains that Van Gogh had manic depression with temporal lobe epilepsy, which led to hypergraphia, manic writing and painting, with a tremendous output. The TLE also made him violently confrontational, hence his relationships began and ended, with Vincent having to start over socially all the time.
Click on the image to start the video.
Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night
1889
oil on canvas
73.7 x 92.1 cm
The Museum of Modern Art
Painted from his asylum room in St. Remy, the dark town, dark society stabs at the freedom of the starry night sky with a cypress tree, a traditional symbol of mourning and loss.
But, that’s just me.
What does it mean to you?
Video from One Minute Art:
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Paul Gauguin
Nevermore
1897
oil on canvas
Courtauld Gallery, London
Paul Gaugin was Post-Impressionistic Romantic.
Rachel Ropeik, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Paul Gauguin, Nevermore ," in Smarthistory, November 18, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/gauguin-nevermore/.
Our relevant understanding here of Primitivism takes place after the European powers have colonized a large part of the globe and considered these peoples inferior. However, by the later 19th century, some intellectuals were beginning to these “others” as fully human. As such:
Early 20th century, discovery of African, Oceanic and Native American art = non-Western or prehistoric peoples
Seen by Euros as back to a simpler and purer time that wasn’t corrupted by civilization (This, by the way, was not true.)
Discovery of more and more about non-Western cultures through interaction with such cultures as China and Japan, but more importantly, Africa, Oceania and the Native Americas
Rise of Cultural Relativism (not Moral Relativism)
Expositions with this art and material culture take place in Europe and in Paris
From a Western POV, this art is non-representational
Paul Gauguin
Spirit of the Dead Watching
1892
oil on burlap mounted on canvas
116.05 x 134.62 x 13.34 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
From SmartHistory:
Another critique comes from the art historian, Nancy Mowll Mathews, who argues that it was not the spirits that Tehura was frightened of, but Gauguin himself, the middle-aged, white, male colonialist against whom, as a sexual predator, she had little power to resist. This reading gives a disturbing twist to the image with Gauguin taking sadistic pleasure in depicting the fear that he himself caused. It’s worth noting that in Gauguin’s account, seeing her in this state moved him to declare that she never looked so beautiful, and that he was drawn to comfort her, promising never to leave her again.
Text and image: gauguin -spirit-of-the-dead-watching
Please note that some classify Rodin as an Impressionist. I think this is easy to do, but wrong. If you look at the surfaces of Rodin's work, they are heavily worked by hand, but not finished. In sum, they are in the process of becoming. Best to call him an early modernist. Marc Cirigliano
Click on the image to start the video.
Auguste Rodin
The Burghers of Calais
1884-95
Bronze
Musée Rodin, Paris
Rodin’s “Les Bourgeois de Calais" is a must see if you are in Paris. In 1347, after a year-long siege [during the Hundred Year’s War], six citizens of Calais agreed to sacrifice their lives and hand over the keys of their city to its conqueror, King Edward III of England. The story was related in Jean Froissart’s Chronicles (1370-1400). As soon as Rodin started reading Froissart’s account of the historic episode, he began working on the project. He decided not represent just one burgher of Calais but all six in a “slow procession towards death”: Eustache de Saint Pierre, Jean d’Aire, Pierre and Jacques de Wissant, Andrieu d’Andres and Jean de Fiennes. Confronting their destiny and death, alone, they neither touch nor look at each other. Barefoot, clad only in tunics, with a rope around their necks, the condemned men begin their slow, mournful walk.
Video and text by ILoveParis on YouTube.
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Auguste Rodin
The Gates of Hell
1880-1917
Plaster
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell ," in Smarthistory, November 23, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/auguste-rodin-the-gates-of-hell/.
Click on the image to start the video.
Camille Claudel (1864 -1943), initially Rodin’s student, then his lover and mother of his child that would be aborted, completed her masterpiece The Age of Maturity c. 1902. She was, since she appeared, with her insistence on being a free woman, locked away in an asylum from 1915 until her death in 1945.
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Franz von Stuck, The Sin ," in Smarthistory, December 9, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/franz-von-stuck-the-sin/.
Click on the image to start the video.
Franz von Stuck
The Sin
1893
94.5 x 59.5 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich
The Symbolists in the later 19th century thought that previous art and literary movements were based on a literal realism that had become tired, worn out and missed the essence what creators were trying to express.
They thought the essence of things better expressed through symbols that alluded instead of stated.
Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918)
Beethoven Frieze
1902
Vienna Secession Hall
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian artist and a Symbolist.
Image from Secession:
1902 - Beethoven Frieze - 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, a Gesamtkunstwerk celebrating Beethoven along with a monumental polychrome sculpture by Max Klinger. Not on display again until 1986.
Theme: human desire for happiness in a suffering and conflict laden world
Conflict with both external evil forces and internal weaknesses
Linear theme, left to right. Motif of floating female Genii searching the Earth—individual and communal searching
Knight in shining armor offers hope to the plea of suffering humans
Dark, sinister-looking storm-wind giant, Typhoeus, his three Gorgon daughters, plus images of disease, madness, death, lust and depravity above
Concludes in the discovery of joy by means of the arts and contentment symbolized by the kiss
Beauty of the arts coupled with love and companionship
Understanding the Beethoven Frieze
Image from Wikipedia: Beethoven_Frieze
Suffering humanity pleads with knight in shining armor for help. Note how the theme is visually implied, not directly narrated in realistic form.
Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze ," in Smarthistory,
December 5, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/gustav-klimt-beethoven-frieze/.
Click on the image to start the video.
Click on the image to start the video.
Gustav Klimt
Death and Life
1910, reworked 1915
oil on canvas
178 x 198 cm
Leopold Museum, Vienna
Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Gustav Klimt, Death and Life ," in Smarthistory, November 28, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/gustav-klimt-death-and-life/.
Click on the image to start the video.
Edvard Munch
(1863-1944)
The Storm
1893
oil on canvas
36 1/8 x 51 1/2″
91.8 x 130.8 cm
Museum of Modern Art,
New York
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist.
Dr. Juliana Kreinik and Dr. Amy Hamlin, "Edvard Munch, The Storm ," in Smarthistory, December 18, 2015, accessed June 2, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/edvard-munch-the-storm/.
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), was in the Post-Impressionist classical vein. He was also central to the formation of modern art.
From SmartHistory (my Italics):
Paul Cézanne is often considered to be one of the most influential painter of the late 19th century. Pablo Picasso readily admitted his great debt to the elder master. Similarly, Henri Matisse once called Cézanne, “…the father of us all.” For many years The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized its permanent collection so as to begin with an entire room devoted to Cézanne’s painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also gives over an entire large room to him. Clearly, many artists and curators consider him enormously important.
See the entire article: An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed June 5, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/an-introduction-to-the-painting-of-paul-cezanne/.
Paul Cézanne
The Basket of Apples
c. 1893
oil on canvas
65 x 80 cm
Art Institute of Chicago
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, " Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed June 5, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/cezanne-the-basket-of-apples/.
Note that all subsequent images of this work are from this SmartHistory image.
From SmartHistory:
Seemingly simple, Cézanne’s concern with representing the true experience of sight had enormous implications for 20th century visual culture. Cézanne realized that unlike the fairly simple and static Renaissance vision of space, people actually see in a fashion that is more complex, we see through both time and space. In other words, we move as we see. In contemporary terms, one might say that human vision is less like the frozen vision of a still camera and more akin to the continuous vision of a video camera except that he worked with oil on canvas which dries and becomes static.
POV from in front.
POV from above.
Translation: Cézanne showed more than one point of view in a given scene.
Note the cookies in the upper right. We look down on the top two, while we see the rest in perspective from in front of the scene.
Note the front edge of the table. On the right, we see it from in front, while on the left, we see it from above.
Click on the image to start the video.
Paul Cézanne
Mont Sainte-Victoire
1902-04
oil on canvas
73 x 91.9 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dr. Ben Harvey, "Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire ," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed June 5, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/cezanne-mont-sainte-victoire/.
Note that all subsequent images of this work are from this SmartHistory article.
From Clement Greenberg:
He was making the first pondered and conscious attempt to save the key principle of Western painting—its concern for an ample and literal rendition of stereo metric space — from the effects of Impressionist color…
When he said that he wanted to redo Poussin after nature and "make Impressionism something solid and durable like the Old Masters," he meant apparently that he wanted to impose a composition and design like that of the High Renaissance on the "raw" chromatic material provided by the Impressionist registration of visual experience…
The end in view was a sculptural Impressionism...
From, Clement Greenberg, “Cezanne,” Art and Culture, 1965, pp. 50-58, https://monoskop.org/images/1/12/Greenberg_Clement_Art_and_Culture_Critical_Essays_1965.pdf
“Treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, everything in proper perspective so that each side of an object or a plane is directed towards a central point.”
~ Paul Cézanne
We have:
Raw Impressionist color…
used to create shapes…
that make this a painting of solids, not of light and color.
Solids arranged according the Classical Aesthetic: a harmony and balance among all the parts.
So, like Poussin.
In sum, Cézanne creates a scene of multiple viewpoints constructed of colored geometric forms.
Raw Impressionist color
Juxtaposed complimentary colors, blue and orange
Geometric shapes done with visible brushstrokes,
the rectangle (in perspective a trapezoid) and the cone (in 2-D a triangle).
The basic shapes give solidity and permanence to the forms of nature.
A detail of the painting’s upper right