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Moving Movements, History of Modern Painting, 1880 - 90 |
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THE YEARS 1880: A CALEIDOSCOPE OF STYLES |
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In 1879 Thomas Alva Edison invented the first incandescent lamp, able to brun for a reasonable amount of time. In 1883 the international exhibiton in Vienna already had electric light. In 1883 Nietzsches "Also sprach Zarathustra" was edited. In 1888 the first celluloid film came on the market and Heinrich Hertz transmitted what we now call radio waves.
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click the thumbnails Paul Signac Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Paul Gaugain Paul Gaugain Emile Bernard Emile Bernard Eduard Manet Eduard Manet Camille Pissarro Camille Pissarro Emile Claus Jan Toorop Max Liebermann CamMc Cubin Henri Rousseau Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes Odilon Redon Gustave Moreau Michael Vroebel Eveline de Morgan Maria Euphrosyne Spartali Stillman EveArnold Böcklin Max Klinger Albert Pinkham Ryder |
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Style renewers, called neo-impressionists Although
Degas, Monet, Renoir, Manet and Pissarro made their most beautiful paintings in those years, and ever more painters were converted to impressionism (as for example Caillebotte), some artists arose in France which wanted to work different again. Some of them are thrown in a bag with the artificial name "neo-impressionism".
As if they were evolving from impressionism, what was not the case for everyone, as for example Van Gogh. They were more the result of the growing courage to work on a personal, specifique way. |
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In 1887 his style changed, mainly in his self-portraits: vivid colours next to each other, more tight strokes. He started using different colours in a jumble, in spots, as well as short stripes, following the contours of the figures. His subjects became more impressionistic: gardens, houses, rivers and bridges. In September 1887 his style had become a mixture of wild stripes, dots and contours, as for example in his famous sun flowers. | ||
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Emile Bernard painted more or less in Gauguin's style and others will follow them and call themselves nabis. Paul Ranson made in this direction the very stylised, almost surrealist "Paysage nabique" in 1890. Filiger the painted "Paysage du Pouldu": so much stylised it looks like an abstract puzzle. We return now to the impressionists. Cézanne always worked completely different and experimented a lot. He started working in strokes of different mixed colours, a lot more colourful (1882 tot '85). De The strokes are big and in a particular direction. They look a bit like facets. Distant houses are painted completely in such facets. Later on he preferred to work more in spots then strokes, covering (not transparant), but clearly outstanding, often with strongly profiled. Monet, Renoir and others never worked with such contours. Degas, also very varying in his oeuvre, resmbles more Gauguin then Monet or Renoir. Manet's style is very obvious in his "Le bar aux Folies-Bergère", from 1881: the human skin is not painted in severla colours as for example Monet and Renoir do, but nevertheless the work is rich of colour by it's diversity of colourful subjects depicted, reinforced by means of the mirror. Although Pissarro didn't like pointillism, he did look quite similar; instead of dots he did put thin linesside by side (as Previati did), radiating colour and light. Instead of the bourgeoisie he choosed to depict the simle people (as a result he remained poor himself), of their landscape, the hills as well as the cities. Pissarro heavily critisized symbolism, as he did with occultism en boeddhism, which he regarded as bourgeoisie entertainment. That's the reason he also opposed Gaugain, his former pupil. |
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In Germany Liebermann and Von Uhde painted in many colours, sometimes a very realitic socialism, this style more resembling Jongkind or Boudin, then impressionists. In Australia Mc Cubbin painted "The lost child" in 1886, a very beautiful and personal impressionism, representing adequate the wildness of nature. Conder made very sketchy his miniature paintings on cigar boxes. Who didn't belong to the impressionists, nor to the "neo's", is Rousseau. Because Henri Rousseau did't follow any lead-up, he didn't belong to any current movement. He devellopped his personal, naive style according to his own sense of beauty. His "Soir de carnaval" (1886) radiates a poetical mood. |
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Painters and writers always have inspired each other in symbolism. The number of writers in symbolism in the years '80 was still growing in France. Baudelaire was already productive for some time, he translated Allan Poe between 1852 and '65. In 1857 his "Fleurs du mal" was published and condemned in a court trial. Verlaine published in 1884 his "Poètes maudits", dedicated to Corbière, Mallarmé and Rimbaud. In 1889 appeared his "Parallelement" with erotic passages. In 1886 Rimbaud's poetry "Illuminations" was published, after been written in 1872 - '73. "Une saison en enfer" (1873) is his autobiography in form of poetry. In 1887 Mallarmé's "Poésie complete" was published. | ||
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The mecenas and art lover Savva Ivanovitsj Mamontov surrounded himself there in the years '80 with a group of Russian artists and craftsmen: painters, wood engravers, weavers, potters... and made his home a renewing artistic centre.Also concerts were given there, theatre, opera's and folk tales or lectures about Russian history. Vroebel was head of a ceramic atelier, where several Russian artists came working. There also Michail Nesterov, Elena Polenova, Nikolaj Roerich, Vassili Denissov and others were painting. Symbolism was scarcely spread in Russia, realism still reigned supreme. | ||
The Swiss Böcklin painted his "Island of the Dead": apparently in an old style, with clear influences of Caspar David Friedrich, but in a composition of diverse geometric forms: round rocks, candle form cypresses, dark and light rectangles. The soft yellow light contrasting with the almost black shadow creates a dramatic effect and a magical mood. (Click on the thumbnail in the right colon.) Also in Belgium symbolism now aroused. Soon Ensor left his Manet-like realism by rich colours and a clear paint structure in a technically high skill. His most revolutionary works are those full of wild stripes where now and then a little figure emerges, form very vague to more specific, as Turner did before. For example his "Temptation of Saint Antony" (1887), "Christ furious " (1888),
"The defeated Angels " (1888), "Christ calming the Storm"
(1891), "The Garden of Love" (1891). He also made a lot of caricatures or painted masks, also in still lifes and portraits.
Even in his still lifes something of the apocalyptic, twisting lines and vibrating colours remain. Ensor is often classified with symbolism, impressionism,
expressionism, in other words, he doesn't belong anywhere. |
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World-wide, of better Europe-wide, an amount of new symbolists came up as a geyser. They will continue to create until the First World War. To mention some: Davies, Point, Maison, Gallen-Kallela, Homel, Munthe, Preisler, Marianne Stokes, Von Stuck, Bilek, Thorn-Prikker, Schwabe, Kubin, Heive, Frédéric (is also a realist), Arosenius, Arnold Schönberg (yes, the componist), Pellizza da Volpedo, Hawkins, Leduc, Keller, Osbert, Janmot (in 1854 he already reminded Paul Delvaux!), Grasset, Mossa, Moser, Osbert de Volpedo (a pointillist), Stjornschantz (Finland), Wojtkiewicz, Wyspianski, Mehoffer, Klinger, Carrière, Preisler, Hynais, Traquair (silk and gold thread embroided on canvas), Mackintosch, Trachsel, Van Doesburg, and so on... Furthermore there also where a lot of symbolist photographers: Holland Day, Hofmeester, Steichen, Käsebier, Brigman, Bufka, Dubreuil, Stieglitz, Eugene, Robinson, White, Seeley, Von Gloeden, Embeck... A lot of photos were retouched in several ways, for example with a paint brush, what brings them closer to the art of painting. Copyright for the text of all pages of this History of Modern Painting: Johan Framhout; text written in 1990-92; revisionned and put on the internet in 2005; translation in English 2012 |
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