Dorra, Henri. Symbolist Art Theories: A Critical Anthology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994
Chapter 13
SYMBOLISM
Symbolists sought to express personal ideas and universal truths. In order to do so, they explored new technical and compositional strategies. Symbolist experimentation is the foundation of many twentieth-century artistic developments. While united in their rejection of Naturalism and disillusioned with the contemporary world, Symbolists divided into two camps. Optimists belonged to the Idealist camp and pessimists to the Decadent camp.
Artists and Artworks:
13.1 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Poor Fisherman, 1881
13.2 - Arnold Böcklin, Island of the Dead, 5th version, 1886
13.3 - Arnold Böcklin, Silence of the Forest, 1885
13.5 - Ernst Josephson, Water Sprite, 1884
13.6 - Max Klinger, Beethoven, 1899-1902
13.7 - Auguste Rodin, Gates of Hell, 1880-90
13.8 - Auguste Rodin, Thinker, 1880-82
13.9 - Auguste Rodin, Burghers of Calais, 1884-89
13.10 - Fernand Khnopff, I Lock My Door Upon Myself, 1891
13.11 - George Minne, Kneeling Youth, 1898
13.12 - Giovanni Segantini, Evil Mothers, 1894
13.13 - Ferdinand Hodler, Night, 1889-90
13.14 - Gertrude Käsebier, Blessed Art Thou Among Women, c. 1900
13.15 - James Ensor, Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889, 1888
13.16 - Edvard Munch, Sick Child, 1886
13.17 - Edvard Munch, Scream, 1893
13.19 - Paul Gauguin, Where do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 1897-98
13.20 - Vincent van Gogh, Terrace in the Luxembourg Garden, 1886
13.21 - Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889
13.22 - Jacek Malczewski, Melancholia, 1894
13.23 - Odilon Redon, Marsh Flower: A Head Sad & Human, 1885
Readings:
Dreams of a Summer Night. Exhibition catalogue. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986
Facos, Michelle. Symbolist Art in Context. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008
Frèches-Thory, Claire and Ursula Perucchi-Petri, eds. Die Nabis, Propheten der Moderne. Munich: Prestel, 1993 (in German)
Heller, Reinhold. “Concerning Symbolism and the Structure of Surface,” Art Journal, vol. 45, no. 2 (Summer 1985): 146-53
Hirsh, Sharon. Symbolism and Modern Urban Society. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004
Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Empire: 1875-1914. New York: Vintage: 1989
Ives, Colta. “Prints in the Era of Impressionism and Symbolism,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 46, no. 1 (Summer 1988): 8-56
Loos, Sigrun. Eros and Death: Belgian Symbolism. Zurich: Edition Oehrli, 1999
Lövgren, Sven. The Genesis of Modernism: Seurat, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and French Symbolism in the 1880s. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1971
Mathews, Patricia. Passionate Discontent: Creativity, Gender, and French Symbolist Art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999
Morawinska, Agnieszka. Symbolism in Polish Painting 1880-1914. Exhibition catalogue. Detroit Institute of Arts, 1985
Pingeot, Anne. Paris-Bruxelles, Bruxelles-Paris: réalism, impressionnisme, symbolisme, art nouveau : les relations artistiques entre la France et la Belgique 1848-1914. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997 (in French)
Rapetti, Rodolphe. Symbolism. Paris: Flammarion, 2006
Rewald, John. Post-Impressionism: from Van Gogh to Gauguin. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1956
Rubin, James Henry. Impressionism and the Modern Landscape: Productivity, Technology, and Urbanization from Manet to Van Gogh. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008
Stevens, Mary Anne. Impressionism to Symbolism: the Belgian Avant-Garde 1880-1900. Exhibition catalogue. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1994
Varnedoe, Kirk. Northern Light: Nordic Art at the Turn of the Century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988
Weber, Eugene. France, Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986
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