Four men stand out as the penultimate figures of Post-Impressionism, namely, Georges Suerat (1859-1891), Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Paul Gauguin (1843-1903) and Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), all of whom at first accepted the Impressionist methods and then moved away from it toward a new type of painting.
In the case of Cezanne, the basis of his art had much to do with studying nature in a new way, for his aim was not to represent truth or reality but to seek some kind of lasting structure behind the formless and the fleeting shades of color that the human eye usually misses. His Still Life (1890, oil on canvas) represents this ambiguity by having the forms in this painting appear out-of-sync with their true appearances.
Unlike Cezanne who used an almost scientific approach for ordering color, Vincent Van Gogh did exactly the opposite, for he exploited new color to express his emotions as they occur in everyday life. His insistence on the expressive value of color led him to develop a personal expressiveness in the application of the paint itself. The thickness, shape and direction of his brushstrokes created an almost tactile feeling, a counterpart of his intense color schemes. In one of his letters to his brother Theo, Vincent Van Gogh wrote that "instead of trying to reproduce exactly what lies before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily so as to express myself emotionally... " (Needham 256). This quality is best seen in the Night Cafe (1888, oil on canvas) which conveys an oppressive atmosphere of evil through the deliberate distortion of color. In this cafe, the ceiling is a poisonous green, contrasted against the red walls; the floor is an acid yellow and is manipulated by the green surface of the billiard table. And the proprietor, a "pale demon that rules over the place, rise like a specter from the edge of the billiard table... A tilted perspective that suggests the spinning world of nausea" (Holt 268).
Even more illustrative of Van Gogh's Expressionist's method is Starry Night (1889, oil on canvas) in which Van Gogh envisions the universe filled with whirling and exploding...
In a similar vein, the work of Paul Gauguin uses color in new and unexpected combinations, and even before he settled in Tahiti in 1891, color and subject matter were drawn from primitive life, and his attitude toward color went against the Impressionists.
Sculpture, much like painting, had come through the 19th century via the borrowing of historical styles and the application of realism. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) best exemplifies the sculpture of the 19th century, due to his ability to restore sculpture to its traditional importance and make it once again a very powerful and expressive medium. Rodin's mastery of dramatic gesture can best be found in the Kiss (1886-98, marble) which contains a subtle but explicit expression of two lovers tightly embracing with a kiss. This grouping was meant to represent sensual love absorbed in itself, especially since the stone is modeled to a smoothness that suggests the supple surfaces and textures of living bodies, something quite reminiscent of Michelangelo.
In conclusion, the art of the 19th century was composed of a sequence of competing artistic movements that sought to its establish its superiority, ideologies and style within the artistic community of Europe. These movements, being Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, ultimately spread far beyond the confines of Europe and made modern art an international entity which can still be felt in today's artistic world.
Bibliography
Holt, Elizabeth G. From the Classicist to the Impressionists: Art and Architecture in the 19th Century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.
Needham, Gerald. 19th Century Realist Art. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
Peillex, Georges. History of Art: 19th Century Painting. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964.
Pioch, Nicolas. "Classicism." Internet. 2002. WebMuseum. Accessed May 16, 2005. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/gio/classicism.
