Post-impressionism and its impact on modern art

“Post-Impressionism” was the successor to the “Impressionist” painting style. The famous English art critic Roger Fry organized his first exhibition in London and coined the term “post-impressionism” to classify the works of art of painters of the late 19th century. These artists were Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, considered the pioneers and favorites of the ‘post-impressionists’. Georges Seurat and Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec were among other painters inspired by “impressionism”. However, they developed their own styles to enhance and excite through their art, joining the ‘Post Impressionists’ club.

“Impressionism”, as an artistic movement, began in France at the end of the 19th century. This style of painting focused on capturing the immediate mood or visual impression of a scene with live subjects, through the effects of color and light. The “post-impressionist” painters challenged the principle of the objective register of nature. They focused on bringing more structure, form and expression to their work in their own distinctive styles. The ‘Post-Impressionists’, like the ‘Impressionists’, used spiral brush strokes, spot colors, and real-life subjects, only to differ in capturing greater emotional depth. Thus, they added new dimensions to their significantly more expressive art.

The ‘Post-Impressionists’ often exhibited their art together in collaboration, but preferred to work alone. Paul Cézanne abandoned the early ‘Impressionism’ movement, as he wanted, in his words, “to make Impressionism as solid and durable as art in the museum.” He developed an innovative painting style that involved breaking down objects into their fundamental forms through gradations of pure color. His abstract style inspired the great artist Pablo Picasso to come up with the concept of ‘cubism’.

Paul Gauguin lived in Tahiti and was inspired by rural communities and traditional life to present aesthetic art. Gauguin adapted a unique art form created by bringing the flat sensual and exotic color harmonies together with the heavy contour appearance of stained glass on canvas. He also dealt with manuscript illuminations, where the text of a manuscript is adorned with designs or with the use of gold or silver. This gave almost a poetic effect to his paintings.

The Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh was known as an “expressionist” model painter, whose rendezvous with blotchy brushstrokes and vivid colors, elaborately reflecting emotions, earned him worldwide acclaim. Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec was another famous ‘post-impressionist’, known for his sinuous schemes with color schemes that contrasted with ‘impressionism’. Georges Seurat was an expert in theories of color and linear structures. He applied a technique called ‘Pointillism’, in which he used the small dots of contrasting color to create an elusive and illuminating impression on his paintings.

The ‘Post-Impressionists’ started out as ‘Impressionists’, but moved away from their naturalistic approach. They ventured into unexplored realms, adding emotion and symbolic meaning to their art. With their independent and unrivaled styles and their dedication to adding new dimensions to artistic expressions, the ‘Post-Impressionists’ dramatically influenced 20th century modern art. His evolved styles inspired several new concepts, such as Cubism, Pointillism, Neo-Impressionism, and Fauvism.