Post Impressionism

What is Post-Impressionism?

Post-impressionism happened after the Impressionism movement that featured the artists: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Edouard Manet. These godfathers of Impressionism were the reason Post-impressionism was born. They influenced the Post-Impressionism godfathers by creating different impressions in each art.

In Post-Impressionism it was what the artist saw which was the subject impression of Post-impressionism.

Post-impressionism was developed by the artists Vincent Van Gogh,  Georges Serat, Paul Cezanne and Paul Gaugin. These forefathers created different distinct styles that shared the common motivation of creating impressions in their artworks.

Georges Serat

 He saw himself as a classical painter. He was the painter that created his artworks using Pointillism.

Paul Cezanne

He constructed an image rather than depicting it. He thought about how all the elements of the object, how they would work together example line, texture etc (He looked at the patterns of the objects rather than the object itself).

Vincent Van Gogh

His artworks impressed his emotions, to show his moods. Due to him being a self-portrait painter he reflected his emotional states on his artwork. What he felt was a metaphor of what we saw in his art.

Paul Gaugin

He was the free-spirited painter. He was about finding the spirituality in art.

An example of post-impressionism art:

1800

Figure 1: Van Gogh, V, Self-portrait with a straw hat, 1877, Oil on canvas.

Painter: Vincent Van Gogh
Year:1877
Medium: Oil on canvas
The title of image: Self-portrait with a straw hat.
Description: Man/Van Gogh in a straw hat
Accessed date, month and year: 23/02/2017
URL:  http://mymodernmet.com/metropolitan-museum-of-art-open-access/

This image is a good example of Post-impressionism because firstly it was done by Vincent Van Gogh who was a Post-Impressionist that wanted to convey his emotions through the above image. He painted symbolically.  He used brushstrokes, colour,  line and the image itself to convey his emotions. The above image is an impression of what Van Gogh was going through emotionally during the time he painted it.

The above painting might create the idea of anger or seriousness hence the red/orange background, the curves used as line and the oily brush strokes.

Contemporary 2000

Figure 2: Moroz, G, Sparrows, 2002, Oil on canvas.

Painter: Georgij Moroz
Year:2002
Medium: Oil on canvas
The title of image: Sparrows
description: Child in a doorway with small Sparrows
Accessed date, month and year: 23/02/2017
URL: https://www.1stdibs.com/art/paintings/figurative-paintings/georgij-moroz-sparrows-oil-cm-98-x-98-2002/id-a_1586403/

The above image is a young boy standing in a doorway, with some small sparrows outside. Georgij Moroz wanted to convey an idea of loneliness from the boy standing at the doorway and the only company he has is of the birds. The idea of loneliness is also conveyed through the use of colour and brushstrokes and the obscure face of the boy. Moroz created the impression of the loneliness of the boy standing at the corner of the canvas and the Sparrows at the back. The image done by Moroz is a good example of contemporary Post-Impressionism because it followed the norms of Post-impressionism which is using a painting to impress a feeling in the viewer's eyes.

Old and new Post-impressionism artists painted in a way they decided to use the ideologies of any concept they came up with. All the artworks have a way in which they give the viewer the impression of the image. Some artists created their artworks in their view of meaning or impression so that we can engage with the painting better like the painting that Moroz did, any viewer can engage with the painting however not really knowing what the painting is about.

Post-impressionists had to make sure that each painting they produced had an impression although artists all have different ways of conveying their ideas.