The Old Town Magick art collection

Post-Impressionism Art & Prints

Post-Impressionism describes varied approaches that developed from and beyond Impressionism in the later nineteenth century.

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About Post-Impressionism Art

Artists including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin pursued different relationships between colour, structure, observation and expression. Some emphasised the organisation of forms; others used colour and mark-making to convey feeling or symbolic ideas. The term groups these developments retrospectively rather than identifying one unified programme.

A still life, landscape or portrait can reveal these differences particularly clearly. Follow individual artists and compare the handling of space and colour instead of expecting every Post-Impressionist work to share one recognisable appearance.

Characteristics

Post-Impressionism describes several different responses to Impressionism rather than a single organised group with one style. Artists retained an interest in colour and modern experience while seeking firmer structure, stronger symbolism or more personal expression. Cézanne explored the relationship between planes and solid form; Van Gogh intensified rhythm and colour; Gauguin pursued simplified shapes and symbolic suggestion; Seurat developed a systematic handling of separated colour.

Compare what a brushmark does. It may describe a surface, organise a composition or carry an emotional charge. Flattened areas, emphatic contours and unusual colour relationships can move a work away from momentary optical description without abandoning recognisable subjects. The category is useful because it identifies a field of experimentation, not because every included artist looks alike. Their approaches helped shape Fauvism, Expressionism and Cubism in different ways. Specific attribution and date remain essential, especially where a modern reproduction echoes a familiar Post-Impressionist appearance.

Notable artists & makers

  • Vincent van Gogh — Made colour and rhythmic brushwork integral to the expressive structure of a scene.
  • Paul Cézanne — Investigated the stability and ambiguity of form in painted space.
  • Paul Gauguin — Used simplified shapes, broad colour areas and symbolic subject matter.

Notable works

Historical examples for context. Where a print is available in our collection, the work links to its product page.

  • The Starry Night — Vincent van Gogh — A nocturnal landscape transformed by rhythmic movement and concentrated colour.
  • Ia Orana Maria — Paul Gauguin — A work that brings Christian imagery into the artist’s constructed vision of Tahiti.
  • Wheat Field with Cypresses — Vincent van Gogh — A landscape from 1889 whose cypress, clouds and fields are organised through rhythmic brushwork.

Explore Post-Impressionism Art in the collection

Historical art prints are modern reproductions. Dates and attributions describe the original artworks.

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    Sources & further reading