Why Post-Impressionist artists were rebels?

Rebels of a new generation

Some considered this movement to be somehow a continuation or an extension, or perhaps a final phase to the Impressionist movement (hence the term “Neo-Impressionism” used in some references). After all, some of the key elements were never abandoned such as the portrayal of urban leisure as a subject matter.

However, in truth, the Post-Impressionists differed in many ways from their predecessors and that applies to even the subject matter. Most Impressionist paintings didn’t have room for “important content” with deep meaning while they experimented with colour, light and shadow. The result was blurred form and dematerialization of content. The Post-Impressionist artist rejected these obsessions, placed more emphasis on the subject matter, and embraced clear, defined lines.

Outdoor painting and the necessary tools had been available for several decades. It became popular with Impressionism and introduced unheard of portability to artists who, for generations, long sought after it. Post-Impressionists brought it all back indoors (people are never really satisfied!). Their slow painting method, years-long in the case of Pointillist paintings, could only be done inside a studio. The outcome was that art critics had to change their tune: they derided the blurry Impressionist paintings since they seemed like they were completed in a rush but no such accusation could be hurled at Seurat or Gauguin.

Compare the spontaneous snapshots of Impressionist paintings (a woman on a stroll on a windy day, or a ballerina showing off her moves) to the rigid poses of Post-Impressionism and you’ll find that motion was replaced with stasis. Artists were either no longer interested in spontaneity or their new techniques were just incapable – painted dots are not ideal for showing motion.

The London exhibition mentioned above was not well received. Post-Impressionism with its modern outlook was a shock to the conservative English public who were accustomed to Pre-Raphaelite art, a style which looked backwards to a medieval/Renaissance era that preceded, as the name implies, the Great Raphael. Art critics were just as harsh. In fact, the word “Pointillism” was originally coined by them to ridicule that particular style.