Gauguin Post Impressionist Period

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GauguinPost - Impressionist Period
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Alyscamps
Post -Impressionist Art

• Post-Impressionism is an extension of
  Impressionism. Remember that the impressionist
  painters were not interested in making perfect
  copies of what they saw. Neither are
  post-impressionists.
• Post-impressionists continued to use vivid colors
  and real-life subject matter, but they were more
  inclined
• to emphasize geometric shapes (like squares,
  triangles and rectangles)
• to distort forms on purpose
• to use unnatural or arbitrary colors.

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Alyscamps

• This is one of Gaugins earliest works. (1888)
• This work is heavily influenced by impressionism.
  
• What elements of impressionism are visible in
  this painting?
• What aspects of this painting lean more toward
  post-impressionism?
• Emphasis on geometric shapes (like squares,
  triangles and rectangles)?
• Distortion of forms on purpose?
• Use of unnatural or arbitrary colors?

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When Will You Marry?
Paul Gauguin

• Paul Gauguin was born in 1848 in France. He died
  in 1903 at the age of 54.
• Gauguin lived a very ordinary life at first.
  He joined the military at 17 and spent 5 years in
  service. When he returned to Paris, he became a
  stockbroker, married a Danish woman in 1873.
  Over the next 10 years, he and his wife had 5
  children.
• Gauguin had always loved to paint, but when he
  went to an Impressionist exhibit in 1874, he
  became passionate about art. He began to spend
  large sums of money on artwork by the great
  impressionists of the time, including Renoir and
  Monet. Gauguin also began to paint more
  seriously.
• In 1884, the bank that Gauguin worked for failed,
  and he began painting full time. He essentially
  abandoned his wife and children by sending them
  to Denmark to live with his wifes family.
  Gauguin spent the rest of his life pursuing his
  passion for art.

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Gauguin Van Gogh
Night Café by Van Gogh

• Gauguin met Vincent Van Gogh in Paris in 1887.
• Both men were almost insanely passionate artists.
  Both had given up everything in their lives in
  pursuit of their art.
• Gauguin felt misunderstood by most people. In
  Vincent, however, he found someone who really did
  understand his obsession with painting.
• Vincent so admired Gauguins work that he invited
  Gauguin to his studio in Arles in the South of
  France to live and work in 1888.
• Gauguin lived with Van Gogh in Arles for only
  nine weeks. Differences in opinion and
  temperament culminated in Gauguin leaving Arles.
  He never saw Van Gogh again.
• While the two never worked together again, their
  work often echoed the artistic sensibility of the
  other.
• The paintings here show two different visions of
  the same café in Arles.
• Compare and contrast the two paintings.
• Each painting conveys a very different feeling.
  What does Van Goghs work say about the Café?
  How about Gauguins?

Night Café, Arles by Gauguin
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La Maternite

• Gauguin traveled to Panama and Martinique for
  inspiration and was captivated by primitive art.
  
• In 1891, Gauguin sailed to the tropics in search
  of a free and unconventional life. He spent the
  rest of his life living and painting in Tahiti,
  returning to France only once.
• In Tahiti, Gauguin discovered primitive art, with
  its flat forms and the violent colors belonging
  to an untamed nature.
• Gauguin is best known for his Tahitian work.
• Notice the post-impressionist elements of this
  painting
• Natural scene
• Flat figures
• Abstract colors

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Landscape with Peacocks

• Primitivism was an art movement of late 19th
  century painting and sculpture characterized by
• exaggerated body proportions,
• animal totems,
• geometric designs and
• stark contrasts.
• Gauguin was the first artist to systematically
  use these effects and achieve broad public
  success.
• The European cultural elite began discovering the
  art of Africa, Micronesia and Native Americas for
  the first time.
• They were intrigued by the newness, wildness and
  the stark power embodied in the art of those
  faraway places.
• Primitive art became a major influence in Western
  Art.

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Landscape with Peacocks

• What makes this painting Post-impressionist?
• Do you think that this painting reflects
  Primitivism?
• Why or why not?
• exaggerated body proportions?
• animal totems?
• geometric designs?
• stark contrasts?
• What do you think of the colors used here?
• Do you like this painting?

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Self Portrait

• Gauguin painted this self-portrait for Van Gogh.
  It depicts how he saw himself and how he wished
  to be seen. What do you think he is trying to
  convey about himself in this portrait?
• He titled this work Les Miserables after the
  novel by Victor Hugo.
• He paints himself as the alleged terrorist
  -- the good man misunderstood by respectable
  society. What does this reveal about Gauguins
  self-image?
• What about this portrait meets the criteria of
  post-impressionism?
• What mood do you think that Gauguin is trying to
  convey here?