(b Aix-en-Provence, 19 Jan 1839; d Aix-en-Provence, 23 Oct
1906).
French painter. He was one of the most important painters of the second
half of the 19th century. In many of his early works, up to about 1870,
he depicted dark, imaginary subjects in a violent, expressive manner. In
the 1870s he came under the influence of IMPRESSIONISM, particularly as
practised by Camille Pissarro, and he participated in the First (1874)
and Third (1877) Impressionist Exhibitions. Though he considered the
study of nature essential to painting, he nevertheless opposed many
aspects of the Impressionist aesthetic. He epitomized the reaction
against it when he declared: ‘I wanted to make of Impressionism
something solid and enduring, like the art in museums.’ Believing colour
and form to be inseparable, he tried to emphasize structure and solidity
in his work, features he thought neglected by Impressionism. For this
reason he was a central figure in POST-IMPRESSIONISM. He rarely dated
his works (and often did not sign them either), which makes it hard to
ascertain the chronology of his oeuvre with any precision. Until the end
of his life he received little public success and was repeatedly
rejected by the Paris Salon. In his last years his work began to
influence many younger artists, including both the Fauves and the
Cubists, and he is therefore often seen as a precursor of 20th-century
art.
Self-Portrait
Portrait of the Artist's Father.
1866 National Gallery of Art, Washington
The
Abduction.
1867 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Landscape at
Auvers.
1873 Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Railway
Cutting.
1870
The Hanged
Man's House.
1873 Musee d'Orsay, Paris
A Modern
Olympia.
1873
Le dejeuner
sur l'herbe.
1873
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