Post Impressionism
Art critics first used the term "post-impressionistic" in 1911 to loosely describe the work of a few artists whose paintings reflect Impressionistic principles, but were created after the movement had lost favour in the late seventeenth century (around 1885). Significant artists whose works have been defined in this category include Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Post-Impressionists, these few in particular, pushed Impressionist principles further than they had previously been explored. Those styles and techniques valued in this period focus on the painting of personal impressions (unlike earlier traditional painting) and a freer and more innovative use of colour to convey the mood or emotional feeling derived from the subject, as opposed to the fairly realistic, if often pastel-like (due to a desire to illuminate their work), use of colour promoted by t
Gauguin was a founding member of the school, becoming the primary mentor of the group, and others looked to him for guidance and motivation. The members fundamentally promoted the principles of this movement, as embodied in the works of Gauguin and van Gogh, especially, and as summarised below. Post-Impressionist works very often depicted aspects of contemporary life, using a vibrant non-naturalistic palette to express personal feeling and emotion. Post-Impressionist artists, however, further developed these principles and experimented with new styles and techniques, the most prominent of which being the expressionistic, decorative and often unnatural use of colour to depict not only the subject or setting but the emotional state of the artist. In Paris, some artists explored new ways of expression and broke free from the established French painting traditions enforced by the Salon. The creation of smaller lightweight canvases for "plein air" painting, artificial paint pigments, and the invention of the collapsible metal paint tube in...