POST-IMPRESSIONISM

Post-mpressionism

 ɪmˈpreʃ.ən.ɪ.zəm

 noun

Post impressionism is a predominantly French art movement developed between 1886 and 1905. During post impressionism they continued using vivid colors, often thick application of paint, and real life subject matter, but were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort for for expressive effect, and use unnatural or arbitrary color. 

Vincent William Van Gogh was a Dutch post impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. 

He created about 2000 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. 

They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art.

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PAINTING CHOSEN

Title: Almond Blossom

Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

Year: 1980

Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

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DESCRIPTION:

During the period in while he started painting this one, Van Gogh was hospitalized in the south of France, in the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Rèmy. Here, he observes very much the nature that surrounds him and paints for whole days. 

The artist's last “winter” is about to end, the flowering of the almond tree announces spring. 

Branch like spring means rebirth, hope, warmth, and this is what the artist represents as a gift for the birth of little Vincent Willem, his brother’s oncoming son.

This painting is an unusual hymn to life, a parenthesis of inexplicable happiness which hardly belongs to him.

"I immediately started a canvas for Theo's son, to hang in their bedroom, a sky blue canvas, on which large white almond blossoms stand out. The almond branch is, perhaps, the best painting I have done, the one I have worked on with more patience and with more calm" - Vincent

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INTERPRETATION:

Van Gogh has been inspired by the Japanese tradition. He used light and bright colors, pearl white for the flowers and blue with turquoise shades for the sky, as a hymn to life. 

But unfortunately as we can notice from some details, the paint hasn't been completed, because the artist was hit by a crisis.