Painting #135 - Symbolism

Symbolism

The main emphasis of the French Symbolist movement was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures.

Salome
- Gustave Moreau (1826–1898, French)
- oil on canvas (143 x 103 cm) 1876
- Musée Gustave-Moreau (Paris) 

Salome agreed to dance near-naked in the court, to entertain his king step-father and his guests, after the king promised to reward her with the head of John the Baptist, currently captivated in the dungeon below.

The Buddha
- Odilon Redon (1840–1916, French)
- Jean RedonDescriptionFrench
- pastel on beige paper (90 x 73 cm) 1906-07
- Musée d'Orsay (Paris) 

The Cyclops 
- Odilon Redon (1840-1916, French) 
- oil on canvas (64 x 51 cm) in c.1914 
- Kroller-Muller Museum (Netherlands) 

Note: A one-eyed giant in a myth.

The Bois d'Amour at Pont Aven
- Paul Sérusier (1864–1927, French) 
- oil on wood (27 × 21.5 cm) 1888
- Musée d'Orsay (Paris) 

The Bois d'Amour《愛之林》at Pont Aven (阿望橋，in Brittany) is aka The Talisman《護符》, as it represented freedom of arts and its future development to the younger artists. Sérusier exercised great influence on symbolism and Nabis.

Breton Women in the Meadow (Le Pardon de Pont-Aven)
- Émile Bernard (1868–1941, French)
- oil on canvas (74 x 93 cm) 1888
- Musée d'Orsay (Paris) 

Cloisonnism is a style of post-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. Artists Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, Paul Gauguin, Paul Sérusier, and others started painting in this style in the late 19th century.
        The name evokes the technique of cloisonné (景泰藍), 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.

到了十九世纪末，在法国发展起来的象征主义终于蔓延到了欧洲各国。

Nocturn in the Parc Royal, Brussels
- William Degouve de Nuncques (1867–1935, Belgian)
- pastel (65 x 50 cm) 1897
- Musée d'Orsay (Paris)

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903, French)

Vision after the Sermon
- Paul Gauguin
- oil on canvas (72 × 91 cm) 1888
- Scottish National Gallery (Edinburgh) 

“It depicts a scene from the Bible in which Jacob wrestles an angel. It depicts this indirectly, through a vision that the women depicted see after a sermon in church.”

Nevermore
- Paul Gauguin
- oil paint on canvas (50 x 116 cm) 1897; Taïti
- Courtauld Institute of Art (London) 

“The enigmatic work depicts a naked Pahura, Gauguin's teenage vahine or wife, lying on a bed in their hut, her voluptuous figure echoed by the curves of the headboard.”

Horsemen on the Beach
- Paul Gauguin
- oil on canvas (66 x 76) 1902; French Polynesia
- Museum Folkwang (Essen, Germany) 

Stéphane Mallarmé
- Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
- etching (18.3 x 14.4 cm plate) 1891
- Harris Brisbane Dick Fund

Edvard Munch (1863–1944, Norwegian)  

The Sick Child (the original version)
- Edvard Munch
- oil on canvas (120 x 119 cm) 1885–86
- National Gallery (Oslo) 

Madonna
- Edvard Munch
- oil on canvas (91 x 71 cm) 1894-5
- National Gallery of Norway (Oslo) 

The Scream
- Munch
- oil, tempera & pastel on cardboard (120 × 141 cm) 1893
- National Gallery (Oslo) 

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918, Austrian) 

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
(aka The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold)
- Gustav Klimt
- oil, silver & gold leaf on canvas (140 × 140 cm) 1907
- Neue Galerie (New York) 

Death and Life
- Gustav Klimt
- oil on canvas (178 x 198 cm) 1915
- Leopold Museum (Vienna)  

The Kiss (Lovers)
- Gustav Klimt
- Oil & gold leaf on canvas (180 × 180 cm) 1908–09
- Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna) 

Ferdinand Hodler

(1853–1918, Swiss)

As realist...

Cherry tree
- Ferdinand Hodler
- oil on cardboard (68 × 52 cm) 1906
- Kunst Museum Winterthur (Zurich)

Jungfrau Massif and Schwarzmonch
- Ferdinand Hodler in 1911
- oil on canvas
- Kunst Museum Winterthur (Zurich)

As symbolist...

Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc in the morning light
- Ferdinand Hodler
- oil on canvas (59 x 120 cm) 1918
- Kunst Museum Winterthur (Zurich)

Félix Vallotton

(1865–1925, Swiss & French) 

 The White and the Black
- Félix Vallotton
- oil on canvas (114 x 147 cm) 1913
- Winterthour

Source: Wikipedia