Post-Impressionism
|
Paul Gauguin
|
| When: |
1848-1903 |
| Where: |
Paris, Brittany and later went to Tahiti in the
Pacifics. |
| What: |
Used to be a stock-broker and only painted part-time. |
| |
1874 he saw the first Impressionist exhibition,
which fueled his desire to paint. |
| |
Spent money to pay for the works of the Impressionists
like Monet, Renior and Manet. |
| |
1883, he left behind everything and became a full-time
painter - at the age of 35. |
| |
Seek primitive scenes to portray emotion and imagination. |
| How: |
Does not use chiaroscuro or perspective. |
| |
“A meter of green is greener than a centimetre
if you wish to express greenness.” |
| |
Bright colours to express emotions. |
| |
Simplified forms in unnatural colours. |
| |
Strong outlines in rhythmic patterns. |
| |
Does not work outdoors |
| Who: |
Influenced by the works of Pissarro and Cezanne. |
| |
|
| Meeting with Van Gogh: |
Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers
1888
Oil on canvas
28 3/4 x 36 1/2 in.
Private collection
|
Van Gogh invited Gauguin to paint
with him in Arles in 1888. Van Gogh treated Gauguin as his
master and wanted to learn from him.
Van Gogh decorated Gauguin's guest room and studio with "nothing
but big big sunflowers". When Gauguin arrives, they
talked and discussed about art and
However, due to many disagreements and arguements, the two
artists had a fight and Gauguin left Van Gogh after about
1 month.
Van Gogh overcame by depression, cut off his left ear...
More information can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
Gauguin
At the Cafe
1888
Oil on canvas
92 x 72 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
|
Van Gogh
The Night Cafe
1888
Oil on canvas
70 x 89 cm
Yale University Art Gallery
|
Here are the paintings done by Gauguin and Van
Gogh when they are painting together in Arles. Both artists
used bright colours and strong outlines. What are some of the
differences?
Note the similarity and contrast of styles. |
|
|
|
| Where: |
Brittany |
Tired of the city life in Paris, Gauguin went
to Pont-Aven in Brittany, northwest of Paris and painted there.
There he painted two of his masterpieces: Vision After the
Sermon 1888 and The Yellow Christ 1889 |
|
|
|
|
The Vision After the Sermon
(Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)
1888
Oil on canvas
73 x 92 cm
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh |
Gauguin combined stylized images of Breton figures
in a with a 'vision' in the top right corner. Thus the 'real'
and imagined worlds depicted, are separated by the strong, diagonal
of the tree, which was inspired by Japanese prints.
Gauguin studied Japanese prints and even adopted their use of
bold, flat areas of solid color. The figures are distributed
unconventionally, cut off and framing the canvas edge at the
left and in the foreground. No identifiable source of light
is used.
The painting is about inner rather than eternal truth.
The colours used also created an ambiguity of space. The warm
red for the background vs the cool blue in the foreground. |
|
|
|
|
The Yellow Christ
1889
Oil on canvas
92.1 x 73.4 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY |
The face of Christ is a self portrait. Breton
women are depicted at the bottom of the crucifix. It is modeled
on a wooden crucifix Gauguin saw during his stay in Brittany.
The structure of the painting is framed at the top by the cross-bar
of the crucifix. The vertical is set in contrast against the
horizontals in the background. The strong and bright colours
also produce a flattening effect. |
|
|
|
|
|
Self-Portrait with the Yellow Christ
1889-90
oil on canvas. |
Self-portrait with Halo
1889
Oil on wood
79.6 x 51.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
|
Les Alyscamps, Arles
1888
Oil on canvas
91 x 72 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris |
|
|
|
| Where: |
Tahiti |
| When: |
Arrived on June 9 1891, returned to Paris between
1893-1895.
He held his first major exhibition in 1893 to display his Tahitian
works.
Went back to Tahiti and remained there in 1895. |
| What: |
Tahiti founded in 1606 |
| |
Europeans used the lands to exploit its coconut,
cotton, coffee and sugarcane plantations. |
| |
Missionaries came to spread the European culture
and religion to the indigenous population. |
| Why: |
Wanted to look for a place that was still unspoiled
and wild, he travelled to Tahiti in search for a paradise. |
| |
|
| What: |
Il Orana Maria
(We Hail Thee Mary)
1891
Oil on canvas
113.7 x 87.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Painted in a village called Mataiea, south of
Tahiti.
Here, the viewer is first drawn to the figure in the red dress
on the right. On a superficial level, the painting may seem
to be a mere depiction of the local daily life.
However, on close examination, one will notice the thin lines
around the heads of the woman and the child on her shoulder.
These lines represent halos. On one level, this painting
is like a classical painting of similar theme. Gauguin has elevated
a ordinary scene in Tahiti in to a religious painting.
The figures here symbolise some other ideas that are
beyond the painting itself. |
|
|
|
|
|
Spirit of the Dead Watching
1892
Oil on burlap mounted on canvas
72.4 x 92.4 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY |
Nevermore
1897
Oil on canvas
60.5 x 116 cm
Courtauld Institute Galleries, London |
These 2 paintings are similar in composition
and theme.
Both are in the tradition of the monumental nude painting. See
Manet's Olympia.
Both paintings are also about fear for something. In Nevermore,
the object of fear is symbolised by the raven standing at the
window. |
| |
|
|
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
1897
Oil on canvas
54 3/4 x 147 1/2 in.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
|
On the right (Where do we come from?), we see
the baby, and three young women.
In the center, Gauguin meditates on what we are. Here are two
women, talking about destiny (or so he described them), a man
looking puzzled and half-aggressive, and in the middle, a youth
plucking the fruit of experience.
A child eats the fruit, overlooked by the remote presence of
an idol - emblem of our need for the spiritual.
In the final section (Where are we going?), a beautiful young
woman broods, and an old woman prepares to die. Her pallor and
gray hair tell us so, but the message is underscored by the
presence of a strange white bird. It is Gauguin's symbol of
the afterlife, of the unknown. |
|
|
| Other Works: |
Market Day
1892
Oil on canvas
73 x 91.5 cm
Kunstmuseum, Basel |
Matamoe
1892
Oil on fine canvas
115 x 86 cm
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow |
Riders on the Beach
1902
Oil on canvas
73 x 92 cm
Private collection
|
|
|
| Influence to: |
The Fauves, Matisse, Picasso, the Symbolists and
the Expressionist. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
