Paul Gauguin, strongly affected by his trip…
1888 CE
Now completely breaking with Impressionist art and theory, he makes a conscious effort to work less directly from nature and to rely more upon memory, while emphasizing two-dimensional flat patterns.
In his seminal Vision After the Sermon (1888; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh), he attempts to combine in one setting two levels of reality, the everyday world and the dream world.
In the lower part of the large canvas are Breton peasant women leaving the church; above them is the vision of Jacob wrestling with the angel, which had been the sermon of the day.
The lower figures, although clearly outlined in black contours, are reduced to areas of flat patterns, without modeling or perspective.
The broad planes of color are intense and without shadows.
The design is so strong that the two realities fuse into one visual experience.
Gauguin coins the term "Synthetism" to describe his style during this period, referring to the synthesis of his paintings' formal elements with the idea or emotion they conveyed.
He is joined by Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin, who have lately begun to work in a similar way, as well as Laval, Sérusier, Maxime Maufra, Charles Filiger, Meyer de Haan, Armand Séguin, and Henri de Chamaillard.
Gauguin acts as a mentor to many of the artists who assemble in Pont-Aven, urging them to rely more upon feeling than upon the direct observation associated with Impressionism.
Indeed, he advises: "Don't copy too much after nature. Art is an abstraction: extract from nature while dreaming before it and concentrate more on creating than on the actual result."
Images
Paul Gauguin: The Vision After the Sermon (Jacob wrestling with the Angel) (1888); oil on canvas 73 cm (28.7 ″) x92 cm (36.2 ″). Scottish National Gallery
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