Cloisonnism

Cloisonnism is a style of

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 aga ...

painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. The term was coined by critic Édouard Dujardin on the occasion of the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

, in March 1888. Artists Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin,

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 ...

, Paul Sérusier, and others started painting in this style in the late 19th century. The name evokes the technique of ''

cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inlays of cut gemstone ...

'', 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. In ''

The Yellow Christ ''The Yellow Christ'' (in French: ''Le Christ jaune'') is a painting executed by Paul Gauguin in 1889 in Pont-Aven. Together with '' The Green Christ'', it is considered to be one of the key works of Symbolism in painting. Gauguin first visited ...

'' (1889), often cited as a quintessential cloisonnist work, Gauguin reduced the image to areas of single colors separated by heavy black outlines. In such works he paid little attention to classical perspective and eliminated subtle gradations of color—two of the most characteristic principl