Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry (c. 1897) by Paul CézanneThe Baltimore Museum of Art
Discover the artists who developed this divisive movement
Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, which was from the last Impressionist exhibition up to the birth of Fauvism. The movement emerged as a reaction against Impressionism and its concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and color.
Post-Impressionists both extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: the artists continued using vivid colors, a thick application of paint and real-life subject matter, but were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort forms for an expressive effect and use unnatural and seemingly random colors.
Due to this broad emphasis on more abstract qualities and symbolic meaning, Post-Impressionism can encompass sub-movements such as Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism, and Synthetism. The term Post-Impressionism was first used by English artist and critic Roger Fry in 1906 and then again in 1910 when he organized the exhibition, Manet and the Post-Impressionists, which defined it as the development of French art since Manet, a key figure in Impressionist painting.
To understand what how the movement manifested itself in the art world, here we explore the artists and artworks that defined Post-Impressionism.
Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry, Paul Cézanne, 1897The Balitmore Museum of Art, USA
Mont Satine-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry by Paul Cézanne (From the collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art)
The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889The Museum of Modern Art, USA
The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent van GoghMoMA The Museum of Modern Art
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (From the collection of MoMA)
Arearea, Paul Gauguin, 1892Musee d’Orsay, Paris
Arearea (1892) by Paul GauguinMusée d’Orsay, Paris
Arearea by Paul Gauguin (From the collection of Musée d'Orsay)
A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte, George Seurat, 1884-1886The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) by Georges SeuratThe Art Institute of Chicago
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (From the collection of The Art Institute Chicago)
The Dream, Henri Rousseau, 1910The Museum of Modern Art, USA
The Dream (1910) by Henri RousseauMoMA The Museum of Modern Art
The Dream by Henri Rousseau (From the collection of MoMA)
The Bonaventure Pine, Paul Signac, 1893The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
The Bonaventure Pine (1893) by Paul SignacThe Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Bonaventure Pine, Paul Signac (From the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)