SYMBOLISM

in painting
• French literary movement in the 1880s
• Albert Aurier gave the first definition of
symbolism as an aesthetic, describing i
t as the subjective vision of an artist ex
pressed through a simplified and non-n
aturalistic style.
• In 1891an article on Paul Gauguin was
published hailing him as the leader of sy
mbolism.
 The groundwork for pictorial Symb
olism was laid as early as the 187
0s by an older generation of artis
ts

• Gustave Moreau (1826–1898)

• Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1898)
• Odilon Redon (1840–1916)
• Eugène Carrière (1849–1906)
• Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) (26.90)
• Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898).
Symbolism produced imaginar
y dream worlds populated wit
h mysterious figures from bibli
cal stories and Greek mytholog
y as well as fantastical, often m
onstrous, creatures.
 Themes In Symbolist Art
• love
• fear
• anguish
• death
• sexual awakening
• unrequited desire.
•Woman became the fa
vored symbol for the e
xpression of these univ
ersal emotions, appear
ing alternately as wist
ul virgins and menacin
g femmes fatales.
Moreau popularized the m
otifs of Salome brandishin
g the head of John the Bap
tist and the man-eating sp
hinx through paintings suc
h as Oedipus and the Sphi
nx in the Salons of the mi
d-1860s and 1870s.
Oedipus and The Sphinx
Apparition of the Baptist H
ead
Death and the Grave Digger
by Carlos Schwabe
PROMINENT ARTIST OF SYM
BOLISM

• Gustav Monreau
• Edvard Munch • Sir Edward Burne-Jo
nes
• Ferdinand Hodler
• Arnold Bocklin
• Fernand Khnopf • Pierre Puvis de Cha
• Gustav Klimt vannes
• Adria Gual
Edvard Munch
The Scream (1893)
The Anxiety (1894)
Ferdinand Hodler "The Night"
 Fernand Khnopff

The Caresses (The Sphinx), 1896

Gustav Klimt "The Kiss"
(1908-1909)
Gustav Monreau "The Life
of Humanity"(1886)
Sir Edward Burne-Jones: The
Beguiling of Merlin (1878)
Arnold Bocklin: Island of the Dead (188
0)
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
: The Dream (1883)
Adria Gual: Morning Dew (18
97)
Thank you for list
ening

-jade mamigo