Why Symbolist artists were rebels?

Rebels of a new generation

Symbolists did not merely reject an art style, they rejected mainstream society, from its materialism to its “bourgeois morality.” They saw Realism (1830-1870) in art as inferior to subject matter expressing their personal emotions and mystical metaphors. Impressionism (1870 – 1900) was no different.

In retrospect, we could view Symbolism as a first major step in breaking up with realistic art heading towards modern abstraction (non-figurative representation) where we’ll eventually end up with paintings with simple geometric shapes or plain colours. In the eyes of the Symbolists, it was another art style based on the real world. They particularly disdained its “superficial” play with light and colour. They brought back elements from Romanticism, although in a much gloomier style. The Sybmolist prophet who dug into his own psyche for spiritual visions to graphically translate them into symbols and allegories was, you could say, foretelling the world that the Surrealists are coming. They were their precursors.