Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July

1890) a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter

a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts (spells) of mental illness throughout his life, and died largely unknown, at the age of 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Self Portrait1889

On 23 December 1888, frustrated and ill, Van Gogh confronted Paul Gauguin with a razor blade. In panic, Van Gogh left their hotel and fled to a local brothel. While there, he cut off the lower part of his left ear lobe. He wrapped the severed tissue in newspaper and handed it to a prostitute named Rachel, asking her to "keep this object carefully.“ After he tried to drink a quart of ‘turpentine (solvent to thin oil-based paints) in his studio, he was sent to the asylum at Saint-Remy on May 7, 1889.

Paul Gauguin1848 – 1903

was a leading Post-Impressionist artist, painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist and writer. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

"Cloisonnism"

"Cloisonnism" is a style of post-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. The name evokes the technique of cloison’né, where wires (cloisons or "compartments") are soldered to the body of the piece, filled with powdered glass, and then fired. Many of the same painters also described their works as Synthetism a closely related movement.

Vision after the Sermon, 1888 Paul Gauguin

A Shift in StyleA Shift in Artistic Ideal

Executed between mid-August 1888 and mid-SeptemberThe Vision after the Sermon marks the transition between two different styles in Gauguin’s development as an artist. Having found that his artistic ideals did not coincide with the Impressionistic ones, Gauguin endeavored, through his art, to transcend material reality and to attain a more eminent one. As a result, a shift in the choice of subject matter occurred. From the transient scenes which had been the hallmark of Impressionism Gauguin moved to religious themes and The Vision after the Sermon is the first in the series of paintings related to religious subjects. Gauguin himself acknowledged this decisive break with Impressionism and his stylistic innovation in a letter to Emile Schuffenecker on 8 October 1888, after having completed The Vision after the Sermon :

His Earlier Desire

This year I have sacrificed everything-execution, color-for style, because I wished to force myself into doing something other than what I know how to do. I believe this is a change which has not yet borne fruit, but will one day do so. (qtd. Solana, 41) Gauguin’s confession offers valuable insight into what his intentions were. He was trying to accomplish his earlier desire to become a replica of Christ by means of his genuine artistic creation. In the letter to Schuffenecker he announced a promising long- term project which was going to result in the association of his name with the term “Symbolism”.

the combat between Jacob and the Angel

The Vision after the Sermon depicts a group of Bretton women who experience an apparition of the biblical scene of the combat between Jacob and the Angel, after having previously listened to the priest’s sermon. They are all appalled, but they display different reactions to the vision- some simply watch, while other pray with their eyes closed. In order to convey the emotional charge and to differentiate the painting from a mere reproduction of the scene Gauguin appeals to some compositional devices.

The Starry Night 1989

The Starry Night 1989

The painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Reproduced often, the painting is widely hailed as his magnum opus, Latin for "great work."

Von Gogh’s Letters

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/

Walt Whitman

(May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.

Free Verse

Free verse is a form of poetry which refrains from meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.

Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Salon Exhibition in France official exhibition of art sponsored by the French

government. It originated in 1667 when Louis XIV sponsored an exhibit of the works of the members of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and the salon derives its name from the fact that the exhibition was hung in the Salon d’Apollon of the Louvre Palace in Paris. After 1737 the Salon became an annual rather than a sporadic event, and in 1748 the jury system of selection was introduced. During the French Revolution the Salon was opened for the first time to all French artists, although the ... (100 of 157 words

The Apotheosis of Homer (1927) by Jean-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)

Linear, balanced, carefully composed or controlled and idealized, exemplifying French classicism, carrying the

theme of painting as learning.

The French Romantic TraditionPresided over by Eugene Delacroix (1789-1863), rooted

his style in a painterly (as opposed to linear) tradition and in loose brushwork and vivid color as in The Lion Hunt,

1862.

Realism, Gustave Courbet In between Classicism and Romanticism

The Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory (1855)

Gustave Courbet (1819-1827)

Real Allegory was the first important work of Realist art that dealt with urbanity as its subject. Earlier works in the genre has focused on traditional rural life in France.

Honore Daumier (1810 – 1879)

Napoleon III’s ParisHis Intent to Glorify Paris

Paris had a woefully inadequte and antiquated infrastructure. Unlike modern London, there was no central sewage system, no system of fresh water distribution, and no modern traffic pattern. Many of the impressionists, it turned out, would end up living in a city under construction.

The rebuilding of Paris was crucial to the birth of impressionism, for the movement was enchanted with urban modernity—and later, the countryside that offered a haven from it.

Napoleon III at Work

Napoleon III adopted a system of boulevards and streets that linked the historically separated neighborhoods of Paris with one another and with the central artery of communication, the Seine River.

He worked with financiers and property owners to evict hundreds of thousands of people to modernize the capital.

Symbolism is Important as Efficiency in a Capital City

The Louvre and Notre Dame, the two most potent symbols of French and Parisian—authority were isolated from their urban fabric and completed as symbolic architectural structures.

Charles Daudelaire1821 – 1867

Baudelarie’s insistence that art be contemporary in subject and manner had a profound influence on the impressionists.

His most inventive contribution was the Flaneur, the strolling character who was the embodiment of urban modern precepts that the impressionists would adopt in their lives and works.

Baudelair’s Basic IdeasTwo Functions of Art

Representation should make intelligible patterns of the contemporary world for the benefit of people living in the present;

Representation should embody the essence of that present for men and women in the future;

Baudelarie’s Flaneur or Dandy

Baudelair’s central urban character was a flaneur, or a well-dressed gentleman (in English, a dandy) who strolled the streets and boulevards of the city with no destination in mind, looking for diversion.

His “gaze,” seemingly uninterested and involved, is central to the concept of urban modernity.

The First Impressionist Exhibition, 1874

In the former studio of the photographer Nadar at 35 boulevard des Capucines, Paris, April 15, 1874, a group of artists (about 30), rejected by the juries of the Salon, offer their work for public view. Although some critics appreciate the "new painting", most subject the artists to ridicule. The work of the "Impressionists" will eventually lead to what is now recognized as Modern Art. This partial recreation of their first exhibition is in tribute to the spirit of these iconoclastic pioneers.To enter the exhibition, click on an artist's name. I have put together some notes to help guide you through the exhibit.