Synthetism

Synthetism is a late 19th-century painting approach that emphasized simplified form, flat areas of color, and the synthesis of observation with memory and emotion. It emerged among artists who reacted against academic naturalism and Impressionist opticalism, proposing instead a construction of image that draws on personal symbolism, regional motifs, and decorative design. The movement influenced post-Impressionist developments across Europe and colonies, intersecting with diverse artistic networks, exhibitions, and publications.

Background and Origins

Synthetism developed in the context of salons, independent exhibitions, and artist colonies connected to figures active in the Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne, Groupe des XX, Pont-Aven School, and Académie Julian. Precursors and contemporaries who shaped its milieu included members of the Impressionist Exhibitions, participants in the Exposition Universelle (1889), and contributors to periodicals like La Revue Blanche, Le Monde artistique, and Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Networks of artists formed around institutions such as École des Beaux-Arts, Musée du Louvre, National Gallery, Tate Gallery, and regional museums including Musée d'Orsay and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. Patrons and dealers linked to salons and galleries—such as Ambroise Vollard, Paul Durand-Ruel, Theo van Gogh, and Durand-Ruel—helped circulate works through venues like Galerie Bernheim-Jeune and Goupil & Cie. Travel and cultural exchange via ports and colonies like Brittany, Paris, London, Amsterdam, New York City, Tokyo, and Havana also fed the stylistic synthesis.

Key Artists and Works

Artists associated with the approach came from varied backgrounds: notable painters active in related circles included Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Charles Laval, Émile Schuffenecker, Armand Guillaumin, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Alphonse Osbert, Louis Anquetin, Félix Vallotton, Gustave Loiseau, Joaquín Sorolla, James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Georges Rouault, Kees van Dongen, Sonia Delaunay, Robert Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Émile-René Ménard, Auguste Rodin, works by Gauguin such as pieces produced in Pont-Aven and Tahiti, paintings by Paul Sérusier like his studies executed under tutelage in Brittany, and watercolors by Émile Bernard executed during travels to Arles and Paris. Specific canvases and prints circulated through exhibitions at venues like the Salon des Indépendants and the Galerie Durand-Ruel alongside publications by Revue Blanche and catalogues printed by L'Ermitage.

Characteristics and Techniques

Practitioners emphasized color planes, contour lines, and symbolic motifs drawn from regional folklore, classical literature, and mythologies associated with places such as Brittany, Tahiti, Martinique, and Bali. Works often synthesized field sketches made in locations like Arles, Pont-Aven, Copenhagen, and Tangier with studio reinterpretation in districts such as Montmartre, Montparnasse, Belleville, and studios near Rue des Martyrs. Technical affinities linked to printmakers and designers active at institutions like Atelier Cormon, Imprimerie Lemercier, Galerie Goupil, and Atelier Roux included lithography, woodcut, and cloisonné-like delineation reminiscent of the Japonisme craze spurred by collections at the British Museum and merchants like Siebold. The approach shares visual devices with movements seen in exhibitions at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and echoes in decorative projects commissioned by municipal bodies in Rennes, Brest, Copenhagen, and Brussels.

Reception and Influence

Critical responses ranged from praise in journals such as L'Art Moderne and Mercure de France to opposition in conservative venues like the Académie Française-aligned press and critics writing for Le Figaro and Le Gaulois. Collectors including John Quinn, Sergei Shchukin, Alexandre Berthier, and Henry Clay Frick acquired works that later entered public collections at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, National Gallery of Art, Hermitage Museum, Courtauld Gallery, and Museum of Modern Art. The stylistic methods influenced later figures active in movements and groups such as Fauvism, Expressionism, Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Les Nabis, Primitivism, Orphism, and early Modernism. Pedagogical and curatorial legacies appear in courses at École des Beaux-Arts, exhibitions at Musée d'Orsay and Tate Modern, and catalogues at Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Relationship to Contemporary Movements

Synthetism intersected and diverged from developments associated with artists frequenting Pont-Aven School, members of Les Nabis, and contributors to Symbolist salons, while parallel explorations occurred among painters linked to Fauvist circles, German Expressionists, and avant-garde scenes in Barcelona and Milan. Dialogues emerged through travel and exchanges involving hubs such as Paris, Montmartre, Arles, Pont-Aven, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Vienna Secession, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, New York, and Tokyo, and through exhibition overlaps at venues including the Salon des Indépendants, Salon d'Automne, and international expositions like the Exposition Universelle (1900). These interactions informed subsequent practices by artists associated with Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and decorative commissions for theaters, publications, and municipal programs in cities such as Rennes, Paris, London, and New York City.

Category:19th-century art movements