Paysage a Saint-Cloud by Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin's 1885 painting Paysage à Saint-Cloud did not fare well with the critics at the eighth exhibition. When compared to Seurat's scientific formulations, Gauguin's naturalist landscapes were dismissed as classic Impressionism: competent, well-painted, but nothing new and pale next to the "old masters" such as Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet. Gauguin soon rejected the naturalist approach evident in Paysage à Saint-Cloud for an art based on memory and imagination. Paul Gauguin's Paysage à Saint-Cloud (oil on canvas, 22x39-3/8 inches) is part of the Joan Whitney Payson Collection at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. |
Critical attacks prompted Paul Gauguin to seek other modes of artistic expression. On the next page we'll find an example of Gauguin moving in a different direction.
For more on Impressionist paintings, artists, and art history, see:
