Breaking the Salon: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Landscape Painting in the 1880s-1890s

 Emily Sonke

Introduction to Art History

Breaking the Salon:

Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Landscape Painting in the 1880s-1890s

Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were not Impressionists, but they worked at the same time and in the same area as the French Impressionists. They painted more spiritual or internal interpretations of their subjects. Though Van Gogh and Gauguin’s styles differed from each other and the Impressionist movement with their bold colors and thick brushstrokes, both artists drew inspiration from Impressionism and painted similar topics. The Impressionist movement was a revolt against the Salon, the official exhibition in France that brought fame to artists who embraced the Neo-classical style. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism alike pushed the boundaries of European art further than they had gone up to that point. Both Van Gogh and Gauguin, without copying, understood absorbed inspiration from the great men around them while developing their own styles. While Van Gogh would die tragically in 1890 and Gauguin would move his career to Tahiti a year later in 1891, their overlap with Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, and Renoir in the sphere of French landscape painting was truly awe-inspiring.

Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)

Landscape, 1889

Watercolor on off-white laid paper

1975.1.691

Auguste Renoir’s Landscape is a watercolor sketch that the artist made in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the summer of 1889. His use of bold colors and visible brushstrokes is a distinct rejection of the Salon’s restrictions. While this is just a preliminary sketch, it is still representative of Renoir’s overall style and finished artwork. This watercolor shows us a glimpse of Renoir's process and how he saw the landscapes he spent time in.

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)

Cypresses, 1889

Oil on canvas

49.30

Cypress trees are a recurring theme in Van Gogh’s work. Their dark, organic shapes add visual interest and contrast to his usually bright paintings. Van Gogh saw cypress trees as characteristic of Provence, France, a region where he spent the last two and a half years of his life. Van Gogh’s use of swirling skies is a staple in his landscapes. His bright colors relate him to the other painters in the era, but his thick, impasto brushstrokes set him apart from the Impressionist movement.

Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)

View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph, late 1880s

Oil on canvas

13.66

Cézanne’s View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph was painted near his beloved hometown of Aix-en-Provence, France. It depicts a view of the Jesuit estate Saint-Joseph. One can see many patches of canvas poking through the paint, demonstrating Cézanne’s quick, loose painting techniques. Despite the unfinished look, this painting was one of the few Cézanne considered truly finished, as evidenced by his rare signature in the bottom right corner.

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)

View of Vétheuil, 1880

Oil on canvas

56.135.1

Monet painted View of Vétheuil from an island in the middle of the Seine River, just north of Paris. The water is hidden by the dark line of poplar trees that separate the town from the grass. In this way, Monet painted the perspective that he saw, even though it does not reflect exact reality. In this painting, Monet focused on the way the light played across the field and interacted with the trees.

Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)

Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889

Oil on Canvas

1993.132

Van Gogh painted Wheat Field with Cypresses around the same time as Cypresses, during his yearlong stay at the mental asylum in Saint-Rémy, France. This painting is one of three of the same subject that Van Gogh sent to his brother Theo and his mother and sister. Wheat Field with Cypresses is part of a study Van Gogh did on cypress trees, including the two other versions of the same painting, multiple pen and ink drawings, Cypresses, and Cypresses and Two Women.

Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903)

Poplars, Eragny, 1895

Oil on canvas

67.187.93

Pissarro painted Poplars, Eragny in the small village of Eragny, where he lived from 1884 until his death in 1903. This painting is of a corner in Pissarro’s garden and the landscape beyond it, and it demonstrates his skill in depicting the effects of light and shadow on a wooded landscape. His small, loose brushstrokes are typical of the Impressionist movement. Vibrant landscapes and village life were frequent topics in Pissarro’s artwork.

Paul Gaugin (French, 1848-1903)

A Farm in Brittany, ca. 1894

Oil on canvas

54.143.2

Gauguin painted A Farm in Brittany during his final visit to that region in France. Breton culture was steeped in Celtic paganism, and that mystique attracted Gauguin, who was drawn to the primitive and the exotic. The painting is reminiscent of Gauguin’s early impressionist style, but the color palette draws more from his experiences and artworks in Tahiti. Gauguin visited Brittany five times over the course of his painting career.