Post-Impressionism is an artistic movement that developed during the late nineteenth century and was largely influenced by Impressionism. The Post-Impressionists, as they are known, released themselves from the constraints of Impressionism to explore their own individualized artistic visions. Post-Impressionism often focused less on the realistic representation of light, color, and texture as seen by early Impressionist paintings. Instead, it emphasized painterly qualities of brush stroke and texture and placed less importance on color accuracy and more importance on psychological, symbolic, and emotional contextualization of subjects.
Defining Post-Impressionism
The term Post-Impressionism was first used by art critic Roger Fry in 1910 and implied a departure from the more naturalistic technique of Impressionism. Post-Impressionism emerged from a mixture of artists whose styles were highly individual and diverse, although diverse from each other. Some of these include Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, and Henri Rousseau. Together, these artists explored the boundaries of impressionism and the combination of realism and abstraction, worked with strong and varied color and design theories, and attempted to create meaningful and expressive images that convey deeper spiritual meanings.
Characteristics of Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is distinguished by a number of characteristic elements, including content, composition, and style. Unlike its Impressionist predecessor, Post-Impressionism is not a single movement but instead is a term to describe the fundamental changes between Impressionism and the beginning of modern art.
Content
The content of Post-Impressionism is diverse, but generally conveys emotions and feelings. It is often more subjective than Impressionism and is more concerned with connecting with the viewers beyond a shallow surface level. Post-Impressionists were particularly drawn to iconography from various cultures, to emphasize the spiritual, symbolic, and emotional elements in their artwork.
Composition
Post-Impressionism compositions are organized differently than Impressionist paintings, which have a tendency towards depiction of outward appearance without considering their inner essence. Instead, Post-Impressionists focused on conveying essential meanings through simplifying their forms, achieving a strong sense of uniformity, and flattening the composition space. This geometric composition also gave a feeling of structure and order.
Style
Post-Impressionism art typically invests high importance on painterly qualities, emphasizing brushwork, texture, and form rather than the naturalistic effects of light and color. Artists moved away from the short and rapid brushstrokes of Impressionists and instead expressed their visions through bold outlines, vibrant colors, and intense color contrasts. In other words, Post-Impressionists unified their compositions by adding strong personal elements, rather than paying attention to the naturalism of the local environment.
Creating Post-Impressionism
Creating Post-Impressionism was a complex feat. The artist needed to learn the Impressionist techniques and apply them with a modern twist. These techniques include using a limited color palette, emphasizing brush strokes, creating atmosphere through complementary colors and intensity, and unifying the overall composition.
The Artist’s Technique
Painting with a limited palette is a key Post-Impressionist technique. The Post-Impressionists created a limited palette, selecting a few basic or primary colors, and using the few shades of each color to produce an intensity and mood in their paintings. This simplicity of color and saturation were combined with the intensity of light and dark, and the increasingly bold choice of shapes and lines. The aim was to create a forceful use of color as opposed to the more naturalistic hues of Impressionism.
The artist also needed to use brushstrokes that conveyed the energy of the environment and the subject. Post-Impressionists explored different kinds of brushstrokes, from dots and dashes to bold, sweeping lines that created texture and color texture. This was the artist’s way of expressing the essence of their artwork.
The last element to creating Post-Impressionism is composition. To simplify and unify the composition, the artist needed to create shapes and lines that would be repeated through the painting and help balance the composition. This could be anything, from geometric shapes to organic shapes, but the overall aim was to create a sense of harmony.
Post-Impressionism was an important artistic movement that occurred in the late 19th century and was influential in the development of modern art. It was a diverse movement with techniques, content and composition that were distinct from Impressionism. Its main feature was its focus on emotions, spirituality and subject matter rather than realistic depiction of light and color. Post-Impressionism artists created artwork with darkness, intense colors, bold outlines and simplified geometric shapes to convey their spiritual and emotional states of mind. Post-Impressionism affected not only the history of art, but also the way artists approach painting and the way in which viewers interpret and interact with artwork.
