Post Impressionism: 1880-1920

Post-Impressionism was a term adopted by Clive Bell after it was used by Roger Fry to describe the work of late 19^th century painters such as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. With the exception of van Gogh, all of the artists were French and the majority began as Impressionists but discarded this form to focus on their own highly individual styles. In this way, the art movement can be viewed both as an extension of Impressionism and a dismissal of its intrinsic limitations.

Impressionism was essentially based on the observation of nature through the effects of colour and light. While the Post-Impressionists gained much from this movement’s use of pure colours broken up in short brushstrokes, they chose a less restrictive style with which to illustrate more ambitious forms of expression. These were later to influence many contemporary trends as well as early 20^th century modernism.

Many of the Post-Impressionist artists were involved with the Societe des Artistes Independants established in Paris in 1884. However, although they often exhibited together, they were quite different to the preceding close-knit Impressionists and mainly painted alone. Cézanne preferred the isolation of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, van Gogh the countryside of Arles, and from favouring rural scenes above the Parisian urban art world, Paul Gauguin eventually took up residence in Tahiti so that he could concentrate on depicting exotic colour harmonies and poetic images of the local people and their traditional values.

The artists considered Impressionism too careless, indifferent and naturalistic - as Gauguin put it, “the abominable error of naturalism.” They felt a spiritual need to explore a more personal emotion through painting, bearing a purer visual affect through unmixed, vibrant colours and curving lines that extended beyond those investigated by the Impressionists.

Our Art on Demand gallery contains the following post-impressionist prints, posters and canvases: