Synthetism is a term used by

post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

artists like

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

Émile Bernard Émile Henri Bernard (28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and writer, who had artistic friendships with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Eugène Boch, and at a later time, Paul Cézanne. Most of his nota ...

and

Louis Anquetin Louis Émile Anquetin (26 January 1861 – 19 August 1932) was a French painter. Biography Anquetin was born in Étrépagny, France, and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen. In 1882 he came to Paris and began studying art at Lé ...

to distinguish their work from

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

. Earlier, ''Synthetism'' has been connected to the term Cloisonnism, and later to Symbolism. The term is derived from the French verb ''synthétiser'' (''to synthesize'' or ''to combine so as to form a new, complex product'').

History

Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, and others pioneered the style during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Synthetist artists aimed to ''synthesize'' three features: *The outward appearance of natural forms. *The artist's feelings about their subject. *The purity of the aesthetic considerations of line, colour and form. In 1890,

Maurice Denis Maurice Denis (; 25 November 1870 – 13 November 1943) was a French painter, decorative artist, and writer. An important figure in the transitional period between impressionism and modern art, he is associated with ''Les Nabis'', symbolism, a ...

summarized the goals for synthetism as, :''It is well to remember that a picture before being a battle horse, a nude woman, or some anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.'' The term was first used in 1877 to distinguish between scientific and naturalistic

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

, and in 1889 when Gauguin and Emile Schuffenecker organized an '' Exposition de peintures du groupe impressioniste et synthétiste'' in the Café Volpini at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The confusing title has been mistakenly associated with

. Synthetism emphasized two-dimensional flat patterns, thus differing from impressionist art and theory.

Synthetist paintings

Paul Sérusier Paul Sérusier (9 November 1864 – 7 October 1927) was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism. Education Sérusier was born in Paris. He studied ...

- ''Talisman (Bois d'amour)'' (1888) *

- ''Vision After The Sermon'' (1888), ''La Belle Angele'' (1889), ''The Loss of Innocence'' (1890) *

- ''Buckwheat Harvest'' (1888) *

Charles Laval Charles Laval (17 March 1862 – 27 April 1894) was a French painter associated with the Synthetic movement and Pont-Aven School. Laval was born in Paris, and was a contemporary and friend of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Gauguin crea ...

- ''Going to Market'' (1888) *

Cuno Amiet Cuno Amiet (28 March 1868 – 6 July 1961) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor. As the first Swiss painter to give precedence to colour in composition, he was a pioneer of modern art in Switzerland. Biography Amiet was ...

- ''Breton Spinner'' (1893)

Gallery

Image:Paul Gauguin 085.jpg,

, ''Les Alyscamps,'' (1888),

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

File:La vision après le sermon (Paul Gauguin).jpg,

, ''

Vision after the Sermon ''Vision after the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)'' is an oil painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, completed in 1888. It is now in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh. It depicts a scene from the Bible in which Jacob wrestles a ...

,'' 1888. File:Paul Sérusier 001.jpg,

, ''The Talisman (with the forest landscape of love in Pont-Aven)'' 1888 File:Laval Allant au marché.jpg,

, ''Going to Market, Brittany'', 1888,

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: 100 Acres, the Gardens at Newfields, the Beer Garden, and more. It ...

Charles Laval
Retrieved April 6, 2011 File:Paul Gauguin 028.jpg,

, '' The Green Christ'', 1889 File:Émile Bernard 1888-08 - Breton Women in the Meadow (Le Pardon de Pont-Aven).jpg,

, ''Breton Women in the Meadow'', August 1888. Bernard exchanged this one with Gauguin who brought it to

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province ...

in autumn 1888 when he joined Van Gogh, who was fond of this style. Van Gogh painted a copy in watercolor to inform his brother Theo about it. File:Breton Women.jpg,

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, ''Breton Women and Children'', November 1888 (watercolor after Bernard). File:Porträt Paul Ranson.jpg, ''Portrait of

Paul Ranson Paul-Élie Ranson (29 March 1861 – 20 February 1909) was a French painter and writer associated with Les Nabis. Biography He was born in Limoges. His mother died in childbirth, so he was raised and educated by his grandparents and his fa ...

'' by

, 1890,

Image:Louis Anquetin.jpg,

, ''Reading Woman,'' 1890

References

{{Westernart Post-Impressionism Symbolism (arts)