French artists are the greatest names of world culture. Moreover, it was the French masters who broke all records for the price of works of art at the best auctions. It is only a pity that their authors received only posthumous fame, but such are the vicissitudes of the fate of many creators of beauty.

French Artists: The Phenomenon of French Impressionism

So, the French artists of the 20th century became the most expensively sold, and therefore the most famous and recognized in the world. Even people who are completely inexperienced in fine arts know their names. First of all, these are impressionist artists. France was inhospitable to them during their lifetime, but after death they became a real national pride.

The greatest artists of France, who received worldwide recognition, fame and fame in wide circles, are Pierre Renoir, Edouard Manet, ‎Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet And Paul Gauguin. All of them are representatives of the most famous and best-selling trend in painting of the 20th century - Impressionism. Needless to say, this trend originated in France, and it most fully reveals its place and significance in the history of world art. An amazing combination of original technique and great emotional expressiveness has fascinated and continues to fascinate connoisseurs of beauty all over the world in impressionism.

Artists of France: the formation of French painting

But French artists are not only impressionism. As elsewhere in Europe, the heyday of painting here fell on the Renaissance. Of course, France cannot boast of giants like Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael, but still made its contribution to the common cause. But Italian influences were too strong to form the original national school.

The first great French artist who completely freed himself from external influences was Jacques Louis David, who is rightfully considered the founder of the national painting tradition. The most famous painting of the artist was the famous equestrian portrait of Emperor Napoleon called "Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass" (1801).

The artists of France of the 19th century, working in a realistic direction, of course, are less known than the Impressionists, but nevertheless they made a tangible contribution to the development of world painting. But the 20th century was the triumph of French art, and Paris became the center of the muses. The famous district of the French capital Montmartre, which gave shelter to dozens of poor artists, who later entered the golden fund of the heritage of mankind, including the names Renoir, van gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso And Modigliani, became the center of fine arts, and still attracts crowds of tourists. Famous contemporary French artists also traditionally live in Montmartre.

M. Prokofieva, Yu. Kolpinsky

In the 1880s in the visual arts of France, especially in painting, a departure from impressionism began. As mentioned earlier (see Volume V), already in the work of a number of impressionists there were tendencies to abandon the realistic plein air of the 1870s, and a more decorative manner of performance appeared. This process with particular force made itself felt by the 1890s. in the work of such a typical master of impressionism as C. Monet.

However, it was not the changes in the later work of the Impressionists themselves that were of greater importance, but the promotion of a group of new names to the forefront of the artistic life. The masters of this new artistic generation are by no means united; they accept their artistic task in different ways and solve it in different ways. In some cases, the artists sought to further modify impressionism, in others, in an effort to overcome the limited sides of impressionism or what seemed to them its limited sides, they opposed it with their understanding of the nature of painting and the role of art.

Therefore, the work of the founders of divisionism, Seurat and Signac, the decorative and symbolic painting of Gauguin, the intense creative work of Cezanne, a contemporary of impressionism, closely connected, however, with the new problems of the 1880s and 1890s, the passionate searches of Van Gogh, the nervously sharp art of Toulouse - Lautrec can only conditionally be united by the concept of “post-impressionism” that has taken root in the literature (from Latin post - after).

Of course, the very development of the social reality of France posed a number of common tasks for art, but they were realized and solved by these artists in different ways. Basically, the French art of those years faced the task of finding new forms of realism capable of aesthetically mastering and artistically truthfully expressing new aspects of the life of capitalist society, those changes in public consciousness, in the alignment of class forces that were associated with the beginning of its transition to a qualitatively new , the imperialist stage of development.

The need to reflect, on the one hand, the sharp dissonances of the life of a big city, the growing dehumanization of the conditions of a person's social and personal life, and, on the other hand, the revival of the political activity of the working class of France after the defeat of the Paris Commune, became more and more urgent.

At the same time, the strengthening of the reactionary nature of the ruling bourgeois ideology and the absolutization of the formal-professional side of any type of social activity, which is characteristic of bourgeois society, including artistic creativity, could not but exert their limiting influence on the search for artists of the 1880s-1890s. Hence the complex inconsistency and duality of the results of intensive innovative searches, so characteristic of French art since the end of the 19th century.

An increased interest in purely optical impressions, a tendency towards decorative solutions that distinguish the late period of creativity of the most consistent representative of impressionism - Claude Monet - continue to develop and exhaust themselves in the second half of the 1880s. in the art of Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935). The art of these masters is in many ways close to impressionism: they are also characterized by a passion for the landscape genre and scenes of modern life, a penchant for developing pictorial problems proper. The latter, however, in contrast to the direct freshness of visual perception in the best works of the Impressionists, was consciously and methodically based on the formal and rational application to art of modern scientific discoveries in the field of optics (the works of E-Chevreil, G. Helmholtz, D. Maxwell, O.N. . Ore).

According to Seurat, the artist must be guided by the law of spectral analysis, which can be used to decompose the color and its components and establish the exact boundaries of the interaction of tones. Hence one of the names of this trend is divisionism (from the French division - division). The mixing of colors on the palette allowed in practice by the Impressionists was categorically excluded, giving way only to the optical effect of pure colors on the retina of the eye. The desired effect could be achieved only as a result of a painterly stroke of a certain form. This uniform ((dotted) manner gave the name to the new school - pointillism (from the French point - point).

Such strict regulation, of course, was supposed to somewhat level the work of quite numerous artists grouped around Seurat and Signac (Albert Dubois-Pillet, Theo van Reiselberge, Henri ~)dmond Cross, etc.). However, the largest of them - such as Seurat, Signac, Camille Pissarro (who joined this direction for a while) - had enough characteristic and striking features of their creative manner and their talent to literally follow their own doctrine.

One of the most typical works for Seurat is “Sunday Walk on the Island of Grande Jatte” (1884-1886; Chicago, Institute of Art). Depicting groups of people against the background of a green river bank, the master first of all sought to solve the problem of the interaction of human figures in a light-air environment. The painting is divided into two clear zones: illuminated, where the artist, following his theory, works with warm pure color, and shaded, where cold pure tones predominate. Despite the subtlety of colorful combinations and the successful transmission of sunlight, the dots of strokes, reminiscent of mosaic beads scattered over the canvas, give the impression of some dryness and unnaturalness. The penchant for sharply local decorativeism becomes even more evident in such works by Seurat of the late 1880s and early 1890s as "Parade" (New York, Clark collection), "Models", ((Sunday in Port-en- Bessen "(Otterlo, Kroller-Mullsr Museum)," Circus "(Louvre). At the same time, in these works, in particular in the Circus, Seurat tries to revive the principles of a complete decorative and monumental composition, trying to overcome some fragmentation, as if instantaneous random composition of the Impressionists.This tendency was characteristic not only for Seurat, but also for a number of artists of the generation following the Impressionists.However, the general formal-decorative nature of Seurat's searches, in essence, did not contribute to a truly fruitful solution to this important problem.

The art of Paul Signac somewhat differed from the cold intellectualism of Seurat, who in his landscape works achieved relatively great emotionality in the transfer of colorful combinations (for example, "Sandy Seashore", 1890; Moscow, Pushkin Museum), "Papal Castle in Avignon" (1900; Paris, Museum contemporary art). An increased interest in the expressiveness of the color sound of the picture makes Signac give a number of seascapes of the 1880s. the names of musical tempos - "Larghetto", "Adagio", "Scherzo", etc.

The problem of the revival of the plastic materiality of painting, the return on a new basis to a stable compositional construction of the picture was posed by a major representative of French painting of the late 19th century. Paul Cezanne (1839 - 1906). The same age as Monet, Renoir and Sisley, Cezanne works chronologically in parallel with these masters. But his art in its originality takes shape precisely in the 1880s. and belongs to post-impressionism.

Early works by Cezanne, written in the 1860s. in Paris, marked by the influence of Daumier and Courbet ("Portrait of a Monk", 1865-1867, New York, Frick collection; "Pastoral", 1870, Paris, Pellerin collection; "Murder", 1867-1870, New York, Wildenstein gallery ).

In Daumier, early Cezanne took those romantic moments, that pointed expressiveness of forms and the dynamics of compositional construction, which, however, are somewhat different in some of his paintings of recent years. At the same time, Cezanne strove for maximum materiality in the depiction of objects. It is no coincidence that he, like Courbet, often preferred spatula brushes. But, unlike Courbet, the tangible density of painting is achieved by Cezanne not so much by chiaroscuro modeling as by color contrasts. This tendency to convey the materiality of the world by purely pictorial means will soon become the leading one in the artist's work.

The advice of Pissarro, whom Cezanne met at the Academy of Suisse, helped the artist overcome the deliberate heaviness of his manner: the strokes become lighter, more transparent; the palette is highlighted (for example, "House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise", 1873; Louvre).

However, a close acquaintance with the method of the Impressionists soon causes a creative protest of the master. Without denying the coloristic achievements of the school of C. Monet, Cezanne objects to the very desire to fix the world in its endless variability. In contrast, he puts forward some general, unchanging ideas about reality, which, according to the artist, are based on revealing the internal geometric structure of natural forms.

Contemplation is inherent in Cezanne's art. This gives rise to that feeling of epic peace, inner concentration, intellectual reflection on the universe, which characterizes the works of the painter of a mature period. Hence the constant dissatisfaction with what has been created, the desire to repeatedly redo the painted picture, the artist's extraordinary perseverance. Not without reason, Cezanne's friend and biographer Ambroise Vollard called the process of his work "thinking with a brush in hand." The painter dreamed of "returning to classicism through nature." Cezanne closely and attentively studies nature, “Writing does not mean slavishly copying an object,” the artist said, “it means capturing the harmony between numerous relationships, it means translating them into your own range ...”.

To convey the objective world, in which the most valuable qualities for Cezanne were plasticity, structure, he used a method based on purely pictorial means. Volumetric modeling and the space of the easel painting were built by him not with the help of chiaroscuro and line-graphic means, but with color. But, unlike the Impressionists, color for Cezanne was not an element dependent on lighting. The painter used the color ratios in order to dissolve the vales in them and without resorting to modeling, to sculpt the volumes of "modulation") of the color itself. “There are no lines, there is no chiaroscuro, there are only contrasts of colors. The modeling of objects follows from the correct ratio of tones,” said the artist.

Such principles could be embodied with greatest effect where inanimate, motionless objects would predominate. Therefore, Cezanne preferred to work mainly in the genre of landscape and still life, which allowed him to concentrate his attention to the transfer of plastic-visible forms. On the other hand, such a formally contemplative method in its true essence immediately limited his creative possibilities. The peculiar tragedy of Cezanne's work lies in the fact that, fighting for the rehabilitation of the whole-synthesizing view of the world lost by the Impressionists, he excluded from sight all that real inconsistency of reality, all that richness of human actions, emotions and experiences, which constitute the true content of life.

And even the infinite variety of life forms was often rethought by the master in terms of reducing them to some clearly organized constructive schemes. This does not mean, of course, that the artist once and for all sought to reduce all natural forms to a certain number of the simplest stereometric elements. But such a tendency sometimes fettered the creative imagination of the artist, and, most importantly, as a result of it, that static characteristic of Cezanne's art appeared, which can be traced in the image of almost any motive. This is especially striking when the painter refers to the image of a person. However, in the best paintings devoted to the image of man, where Cezanne does not strive to apply his artistic doctrine too clearly, he achieves great artistic persuasiveness. A poetic and very lifelike portrait of the artist's wife from the Kressler collection in New York (1372-1877). In The Smoker (between 1895 and 1900; Hermitage), he conveys a feeling of calmly restrained thoughtfulness and inner concentration. However, Cezanne also creates a number of colder works, in which a peculiar contemplative-alienated, so to speak, "still life" approach to man begins to be felt.

It is no coincidence that it is precisely in the field of landscape and especially still life that Cezanne's achievements are, if not the most significant, then, in any case, the most unconditional. "Park Landscape" (1888-1890; Munich, Reber collection) can serve as a typical example of Cezanne's landscape of the mature period. The clear horizontal of the bridge, which is framed by vertical clumps of trees leaning over the water, the well-thought-out parallelism of the plans are close to the balance of the classical stage composition. The still surface of the river reflects the outlines of heavy foliage, a house on the shore, a sky with rare clouds illuminated by the sun. In contrast to the color and atmospheric vibration of the impressionistic landscape, Cezanne thickens the color, trying to convey the materiality of earth and water. Thick strokes are applied to the canvas with blue, emerald and yellow paints, which are perceived as very complex in terms of transitions and gradations, but color masses reduced to a single tone. Heavy branches and a water mirror are treated in a volumetric and generalized way.

Landscapes by Cezanne in the late 1870s-1890s. always monumental: each of them is imbued with epic grandeur, a sense of stability, expedient orderliness, the eternity of nature ("The Shores of the Marne", 1888, Pushkin Museum,; "Turn of the Road", 1879-1882, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; "Little Bridge", 1879, Louvre; "View of the Marseille Bay from Estac", 1883-1885, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The expressiveness of the plasticity of objects Cezanne conveys in his numerous still lifes of the mature period (“Still Life with a Basket of Fruit”, 1888-1890, Louvre; “Blue Vase”, 1885-1887, Louvre; “Pot of Geraniums and Fruit”, 1890-1894, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art). Here he strives for a contrasting juxtaposition of forms and color combinations, which in general creates the impression of a well-thought-out harmony of the composition.

In the painting “Peaches and Pears” (1888-1890; Pushkin Museum), the selection of objects is strictly thought out: the horizontal of the table emphasizes the wrinkling of the tablecloth, on which bright fruits are placed, and a faceted patterned jug and a round sugar bowl rise nearby. Dark red peaches, pink-golden-greenish pears contrast with the cold range, in which the white tablecloth with blue-blue transitions is written. The red border, broken by the folds of matter and surrounded by its cold reflexes, echoes the muffled color echo of the saturation of warm tones.

In order to emphasize the volume of objects, the artist simplifies their structure, reveals their main facets. This is how habitual everyday forms become monumental: round peaches lie heavily on the plate, starched folds of matter become sculptural, the volumes of pears seem compacted. Consciously monumentalizing nature, the artist wants to convey its weight and plasticity to a greater extent than the characteristic, unique properties of this object. The tendency towards simplification of forms, embedded in the art of Cezanne, will be further developed by his followers, the so-called Cezannes, who use it deliberately one-sidedly and turn it into a formalistic scheme abstracted from the diversity of qualities of concrete life.

The portrait works of the artist are united by a general mood of restrained thoughtfulness and inner concentration: they, as a rule, are not characterized by the emphasized psychological acuteness of states. The epic peace that attracts Cezanne in nature also characterizes the image of a man who in his canvases is always full of majestic dignity. In such portraits as "Portrait of Choquet" (1876-1877; Cambridge, collection of V. Rothschild), "Mme Cezanne in a yellow chair" (1890-1894; Saint-Germain-sur-Oise, private collection), "Boy in a red vest” (1890-1895, variants in different collections), the painter achieves not only the richness and completeness of painting, but also greater subtlety of the psychological characteristics of images compared to his other works.

Sculptural clarity of forms, plastic expressiveness marked the artist's multi-figure plot compositions. In numerous versions of The Card Players, Cezanne arranges groups of two, four, or five characters. The most expressive work is located in the Louvre (1890-1892), where the excitement of the impulsive state of one of those sitting at the table emphasizes the leisurely reflection of his methodical partner.

The painting "Pierrot and Harlequin" (1888, Pushkin Museum; the second name of the painting is "Mardi-grass", that is, "The Last Day of the Carnival") can serve as an example of the artist's pictorial skill.

Dressed in a clumsy robe, the hunched Pierrot, baggy moving with a slow tread, clearly fits into a closed pyramidal composition. This almost frozen inert mass is perceived even more contrasting in comparison with the harmony of the walking Harlequin. The clearly perceptible weight of the volumes and the rhythmic relationships between them are emphasized by the pattern and form of the drapery; the piece of curtain on the right is similar in its heaviness to the figure of Pierrot, whose gesture of the right hand is rhythmically repeated in the curved line of the fabric; the matter falling from the left in large folds, as it were, echoes the movement of the Harlequin. The sloping line of the floor, parallel to the outline of the drapery in the upper right corner, emphasizes the slowness of the step of the depicted characters. The overall color structure of the painting is also based on the alternation of contrasting combinations. The black-and-red leotard, tight-fitting Harlequin, is suddenly cut by a white cane, which serves as a natural transition to Pierrot's free-falling clothes written in white with lead-blue shadows. Some gloominess of the overall color sound of the picture is created due to the dullness of the bluish background and green-yellow curtains.

In this work, Cezanne reaches an amazing pictorial completeness. But the integrity of the perception of living human characters, their relationships is replaced by the mastery of the construction of the picture. The fixed gaze of the Harlequin and the unseeing eyes of Pierrot almost turn the faces of these people into frozen masks.

Among the last works of Cezanne, a number of landscapes depicting Mount St. Victoria, on which he worked for many years (options in the Pushkin Museum, the Hermitage and other collections).

In the same period, the artist again turns to the theme of "Bathers" and "Bathers", which he developed at the very beginning of his career. The balance of forms in space, the harmony and rhythm of both the compositional and very beautifully found coloristic construction of The Great Bathers (1898-1905; Philadelphia, Art Museum) testify to Cezanne's interesting searches in the field of monumental painting. However, Cezanne's interest in monumental painting could not find its application in the conditions of that time.

A certain influence of the Impressionists was experienced by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), who soon took a sharply negative position towards them. The artist rebels against the passive loyalty to visual illusionistic impressions characteristic of impressionism. Instead, he puts forward a demand to follow the "mysterious depths of thought", linking in this with the program of the Symbolist writers. However, unlike Germany and England, the trend of symbolism did not gain a dominant position in Gauguin's homeland, and the very content of Gauguin's work cannot be reduced to symbolism or modernity.

A man of turbulent and complex biography, a former sailor and stockbroker, Gauguin became an artist in adulthood. Thirty-eight years old, he goes to Brittany, the picturesque village of Pont-Aven, which has fallen in love with several landscape painters. Some of these artists, following the path of post-impressionism, including Gauguin, united in the Pont-Aven school. A staunch opponent of the "barracks European civilization", he dreams of finding a source of inspiration in the monuments of the national Middle Ages.

The plot of the canvas “Yellow Christ. Pont Aven Le Pouldu” (1889; Buffalo, Albright Gallery) is suggested by an old wooden statue seen by the artist in one of the local chapels. A huge Romanesque crucifix and peasant women sitting next to it in piously concentrated poses recreate the atmosphere of the obedient superstition of the Breton inhabitants, which so captivated the master at that time.

The landscape, which serves as a background, is decided by the artist emphatically decorative: trees glowing with purple are scattered across the golden-yellow fields, a strip of a distant forest turns blue behind the hills. The decorative effect is enhanced by starched white shawls, dark blue and black dresses of the women depicted in the foreground, and a bright orange apron of one of them. The intensity of the color is emphasized by a dark outline framing the colorful spots. This is reminiscent of the technique of cloisonne enamel, only the role of metal partitions here is played by the lines of the drawing, between which spots of pure color are distributed. The term "cloisonism" (from the French cloison - partition) is quite often used to characterize Gauguin's work of this period. The search for linear expressiveness also occupies an important place in the artist's work. And this "as a rule, leads him to the deliberate flatness of the image. The artificiality of the content of the painting "Yellow Christ", testifying to the religious and mystical moods of Gauguin, is combined with a somewhat modernistic mannerism of its artistic solution.

The search for linear expressiveness, the conscious simplification of forms and patterns, the contrasts of color spots also characterize the canvases “The Struggle of Jacob with an Angel” (1888; Edinburgh, National Gallery), “The Beautiful Angela” (1889; Louvre), “Breton Crucifixion” (1889; Brussels, Museum), etc.

Already during this period, Gauguin's desire to overcome the petty anecdotism of salon painting, a peculiar mixture of flat naturalism and vulgar prettiness in it, is carried out by him on the paths of conscious archaization and conditional stylization of forms. This determines both the strengths of his decorative and conditional skill and the peculiar limitations of creativity. Gauguin's departure from the prosaism of the dominant way of life in "prosperous" bourgeois France did not lead him to a desire to reveal the truly dramatic, aesthetically significant aspects and problems of contemporary society. That is why his colorful and abstract-contemplative work, far from both a direct reflection of social life and the complex and rich spiritual world of contemporary people, after the inertia of resistance from the prevailing tastes of society, was accepted and, so to speak, aesthetically mastered by the so-called " enlightened" elite of the same bourgeois society, the aesthetic rejection of which served as one of the initial impulses that predetermined the direction of Gauguin's creative quest.

In 1891, Gauguin decides to part with the prosaic, mercantile, hypocritically deceitful bourgeois society, which, as Gauguin was deeply convinced, is hostile to the nature of true creativity. The artist leaves for the island of Tahiti. Far from his homeland, he hopes to find the primordial peace and serene existence inherent in the "golden age" of the childhood of mankind, which, as he thought, was preserved among the natives of distant islands. Gauguin, until the last day of his life, kept in his art the naive illusions of this dream, although the true colonial reality grossly contradicted it.

In 1893, Gauguin paints the painting "Woman holding a fruit" (Hermitage). The forms of human figures are majestic and static, just like the lazily motionless tropical landscape against which they are depicted. The artist perceives people in an inextricable connection with the world around them. Man for him is a perfect creation of nature, like flowers, fruits or trees. When working on an easel painting, Gauguin always sought to solve it decoratively: smooth contours, fabric patterns, a bizarre pattern of branches and plants create a feeling of solemn decoration. The real nature of Tahiti is transformed into a bright colorful pattern.

Gauguin understands color in a generalized decorative way: seeing warm shadows on sandy soil, he paints it pink; increasing the intensity of reflections, turns them into local shadows. He does not use light and shade modeling, but, overlaying color with even bright planes, contrasts them, thereby increasing the strength of the color sound of the picture (“Bouquet of Flowers. Flowers of France”, 1891; “Are you jealous?”, 1892, ill. 17; both - Pushkin Museum). Some matte fading of the color of Gauguin's works is due to the shortcomings of the primer, which subsequently had a detrimental effect on them.

As exotic as the nature of Tahiti, the people who inhabit this amazing land seem to Gauguin. Their life, covered with memories of ancient legends and traditions, seems to him full of special significant meaning. Passion for images of folklore, the mysterious mystery of the ancient gods finds a kind of refraction in a number of later works of the master (“Her name is Vairaumati”, 1892; Pushkin Museum; “The King’s Wife”, 1896, Pushkin Museum, ill. 16; “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?", 1897, Boston, Museum, etc.)" In recent years, the seriously ill artist fought to preserve the native culture, tried to protect the local population from the oppression of the French administration. called "House of Joy".

Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) creative quest developed in a significantly different direction than that of Cezanne and Gauguin. If Cezanne sought to reveal the most general patterns of the material world, if Gauguin was characterized, regardless of his personal moods, by abstraction from the specific contradictions of the life of his contemporary France, then Van Gogh's art is characterized by the desire to embody the complex inconsistency and confusion of the spiritual world of his contemporary man. .

Van Gogh's art is sharply psychological and deep, sometimes frantically dramatic. Overcoming the limitations of impressionism was conceived by him as a return of art to the acute problems of the moral and spiritual life of man. In the art of Van Gogh, the crisis of humanism of the late 19th century found its first open expression, the painful and hopeless search for the true path by its most honest representatives. This determined both the deep humanity, the sincerity of Van Gogh's work and, at the same time, the features of painful nervousness, subjective expression, often manifested in his art.

If a one-sided interpretation, and in essence a falsification of Cezanne's heritage, became the basis for the creation of cold-rationalist, abstract-formal trends in the bourgeois art of the 20th century, then a one-sided distorted interpretation of some trends in Van Gogh's work is characteristic of expressionistic and generally subjective-pessimistic trends. Western European bourgeois art of the 20th century. For us, the features in Van Gogh's work, not picked up by formalism, are of decisive importance, but all his art is the art of an honest and sincere artist who embodied the tragedy of humanism in the era of the beginning crisis of bourgeois culture.

Van Gogh was born in Holland into a poor family of a provincial pastor. Very early there was a gap between the young Vincent, painfully searching for the meaning of life, and the petty-bourgeois self-satisfied atmosphere of his family environment.

Van Gogh leaves for Belgium, looking for solutions to his concerns in missionary work. In 1878-1879. he preaches the gospel in the coal mines of the Borinage. However, soon the church authorities refuse the services of a person who is deprived of the necessary oratorical qualities and, moreover, is too passionately concerned about the “worldly” hardships of his poor flock.

Depressed by failure, Van Gogh for the first time at the age of twenty-seven turns to the language of art, believing in its great effective power. So he hopes to be useful to people. From the autumn of 1880 until the spring of 1881, the future painter attended the Brussels Academy of Arts. Soon he interrupts his art education and returns to his homeland. In the future, Van Gogh rushes between his stepfather's house, The Hague and other cities of Holland and Belgium. He tackles, equally unsuccessfully, a variety of things, while simultaneously working hard as an artist.

The first five years of Van Gogh's creative activity (1880-1885) is usually defined as the Dutch period, although it would be more accurate to call it Dutch-Belgian. poverty and hard work of miners, artisans, peasants. It is deeply noteworthy that the novice artist turns to the example of Millet, copying his "Angelus", and in 1881 to his "Sower" (van Gogh will return to this image in the future).

It is no less natural that Van Gogh, who lived for more than a year in the country of mines, with all his deep sincere democracy, turned out to be alien to the creative experience of Meunier, an artist who was not so compassionate to the poor, but who affirmed the harsh beauty and grandeur of a man of industrial labor. The famous "Potato Eaters" (1885; Laren, Van Gogh collection) are painted in gloomy dark colors and imbued with the spirit of gloomy depression, almost animal submission to one's fate. At the same time, in the works of the early period, the artist’s ability to convey with particular intensity and persuasiveness both the emotional intensity of his worldview and the confusion of the inner world of the people he depicts is gradually revealed.

Van Gogh begins to overcome professional shortcomings (roughness in the transmission of angles and proportions, poor knowledge of anatomy, etc.), which appear in such drawings as The Street Sweeper (1880-1881; Otterlo, Kroller-Muller Museum). He more and more masters the skill in conveying the characteristic and expressive-expressive. So, in the lithograph “Despair” (1882), he conveys with merciless truthfulness the ugliness of the body of a withered woman and at the same time, with deep sympathy, reveals the deep and bitter hopelessness that this ugly, pitiful, suffering person is seized with.

Dramatic excitement, painful, almost painful sensitivity to suffering, Van Gogh also conveys in works devoted to the natural world, inanimate objects (drawing "Tree", 1882, Otterlo, Kroller-Müller Museum, and "Winter Garden", 1884, Laren, collection Van Gogh). In them, Van Gogh managed to fulfill his desire “to put into the landscape the same feeling as into the human figure ... This is the special ability of the plant to convulsively and passionately cling to the ground; and yet it turns out to be torn out of her by a storm ”(from a letter to a brother). Such "humanization", sharp dramatization of the world of things and nature is one of the most characteristic features of Van Gogh's work.

By 1886, the general direction of Van Gogh's creative searches is fully revealed. The artist's move to France finally determines his artistic development. Acquaintance with the Impressionists, the radiance of the light of the sunny south (Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles in 1888) helps him to get rid of the remnants of the blackness of color and reveal that keen sense of color contrasts, that emotional flexible expressiveness of the brushstroke, which were already formed in Van's creative manner -Goga.

During the last four years of his life, the obsessively working Van Gogh created a huge series of paintings that determined his place in the history of modern European art. True, bouts of mental illness, sometimes feverish haste of work affect the unequal value of his works. But the most significant of them, along with the painting of Cezanne, had a tremendous impact on the entire further development of Western European painting.

The French period in the artist's work is characterized by the unconditional use of the experience of the Impressionists, a fundamentally different understanding of the tasks of art in comparison with them. So, in his painting “The Road to Auvers after the Rain” (1890; Pushkin Museum) one is struck not only by the subtle, accurate transfer of nature washed by the freshness, illuminated by the sun and still sparkling with moisture from the rain that has just passed, but also by a keen sense of its rhythmic life: the rows are running garden ridges, trees curly, clouds of smoke of a running train curl, the glare of the sun shines and plays on the wet grass - all this merges into a holistic picture of a joyful summer world full of life.

The search for a new realistic expressiveness is clearly manifested in his "Boats in Sainte-Marie" (1888; private collection). The sonorous intensity of color aesthetically emphasized and laconically generalized conveys the character of nature and illumination of the Mediterranean south. The sharp rhythm of the masts and yards crossing each other, the rapidly curved silhouettes of the boats pulled ashore seem to retain the feeling of light running on the waves.

At the same time, Van Gogh also creates works in which the beginning of subjective expression, the principle of self-expression of one's state, takes precedence over the task of reflecting and evaluating the world. Such a retreat is felt to a certain extent in his Red Vineyards in Arles (1888; Pushkin Museum). The painting, expressively beautiful in its color scheme, contains a contradiction between the idyllic motif (a sunset in a cloudless sky, a leisurely and calm harvest in a vineyard already covered with wilting) and the dramatic mood of the image. Thus, restless strokes turn the vineyard into a dull burning stream of flame, the blue branches of trees are pierced by a restless impulse, a chord of painful orange tones of the sky and a heavy, bluish-white disk of the sun create a feeling of vague anxiety and confusion.

A visionary character is also inherent in such landscapes as Starry Night. Saint-Remy" (1889; New York, Museum of Modern Art). The black-blue flame of the top of the cypress in the foreground is contrasted with the spire of a distant bell tower, lurking in the blue haze of the village. Now golden, now silver-blue shimmering spirals of light swirl across the sky. All this turns the picture of a peaceful summer night into an almost apocalyptic vision.

Undoubtedly, the feeling of the formidable hostility of the world alienated from man, its gloomy dangerous beauty aesthetically expressed the position in which the lonely, suffering “little man” finds himself, not connected with the class that has learned the laws of the development of history. Therefore, such works by Van Gogh are deeply sincere, and their appearance was historically inevitable. But at the same time, they were an artistic expression of the spiritual world of those social strata who, suffering from the deformities of their contemporary reality, did not see real ways to overcome these deformities and absolutized their subjective state, their sense of tragic despair. It is this side in the work of Van Gogh that will be picked up by expressionism and similar artistic movements in the art of the 20th century.

It would be wrong, however, to see only this side in the work of Van Gogh, a great and honest artist. His "Road to Auvers after the rain", striking in its psychological portrait truthfulness "The Artist's Bedroom in Arles" (1888; Laren, Van Gogh collection), "Chair and Pipe" (1888-1889; London, Tate Gallery) and many other works excite the realistic power of the image, the truthfulness of feelings. In some works of this kind, it is striking not only the truthfulness of his so emotionally expressive artistic language, but also the feeling of a somewhat excited cheerfulness, a major perception of the life of nature, which shows that Van Gogh was sensitive to the beauty and harmony of life. The dramatic, nervous breakdown so characteristic of many of Van Gogh's works is not the result of his morbidly prejudiced attraction to the ugly and disgusting, to their perverse savoring (as was characteristic of some of the decadent cultural masters of the time), but the fruit of his heightened sensitivity to those ugliness and dissonances that social reality carried in itself (“Walk of Prisoners”, 1890; Pushkin Museum).

Sensitivity to a hostile human principle, always lurking in the life of the society where Van Gogh lived, and hidden under the shell of everyday life, found expression in his Night Cafe in Arles (1888; New York, Clark collection). The melancholy and hopelessness of loneliness of the human soul seized by aching despair are conveyed in the dimly bright, deadly lighting of a half-empty cafe; they are conveyed in the dull figures of rare visitors, as if stunned by wine and their alienation from the world. This state of mind is also expressed in the sharp dissonances of colors - the green cloth of the billiards, the pink-yellow floor, the red walls, the yellow circles of light around the burning lamps - and especially in the lonely, helplessly dreary, reminiscent of a fantosh figure, the waiter standing frozen with his hands down.

"I have tried.. . in this atmosphere of an infernal furnace and pale burning sulfur to embody all the power of darkness and the atmosphere of wars. And yet I wanted to reveal all this under the guise of Japanese lightness and Tartarin's complacency" (from a letter to my brother).

The same huge inner tension of experience is revealed in his portraits and self-portraits. So his “Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin” (1888; Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums) is characterized by that feeling of severe and slightly mournful concentration and hidden obsession, which makes it possible for us to recognize in this portrait the artist Van Gogh with his unique artistic vision. peace. Such is his full of nervous energy and wary tension, Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear (1889; Chicago, Block collection).

In the painting “Woman in the Tambourine Cafe” (1887; Laren, Van Gogh collection), in the mournfully tired face of a woman sitting at a table in an empty cafe, in the nervously restless texture of strokes, that theme of devastated melancholy and loneliness, which for the first time sounded so bright and definite in Degas' Absinthe. But here this motif is expressed with less restraint than in Degas, with more passionate bitterness.

In recent years, Van Gogh was subject to bouts of severe mental illness. Some scholars have been tempted to attribute the character of Van Gogh's art to his mental illness. But it's not. If the art of Van Gogh was a symptom of the disease, then the deadly disease of society itself - the incurable crisis of bourgeois humanism that had begun.

A contemporary of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). His work is also classified as post-impressionism.

The work of Toulouse-Lautrec as a whole is characterized by a peculiar development and modification of the traditions of art by Degas and partly by E. Manet in the direction of increasingly emphasizing the moments of expression of the image, reaching almost to the grotesque of the nervous dynamics of the form. In the artist's sheets, in a motley succession, obscure midiettes and famous singers of night cafes are rapidly passing in front of the viewer; the brilliant representatives of the artistic and literary bohemia of Paris and the downtrodden habitues of the brothels; pass now obsessed with feverishly convulsive merriment, now seized by the melancholy of loneliness.

The unusual, sometimes tragic events of the biography, the originality of the environment in which the artist's life passed, played a certain role in the formation of Toulouse-Lautrec's creative inclinations. He was one of those artists of France at the end of the 19th century, in whose work the theme of social and mental disorder, albeit in a very traditional and narrow thematic sphere, found direct expression.

Toulouse-Lautrec came from an ancient hereditary family of viscounts of southern France. As a child, he broke both legs and remained crippled forever. His physical ugliness made him a pariah in the eyes of the respectable aristocracy.

The models for the first paintings of the artist are most often his relatives and relatives. The portraits "Countess Toulouse-Lautrec at Breakfast in Malrome" (1883), "Countess Adele de Toulouse-Lautrec" (1887; both - Albi, Toulouse-Lautrec Museum) are marked by the influence of impressionist technique, but the desire for maximum individualization of characteristics, special, sometimes the merciless, sometimes intimately sad vigilance of observation speaks of a fundamentally different understanding of the image of a person. These are “A Young Woman Sitting at a Table” (1889; Laren, Van Gogh collection), “Laundress” (1889; Paris, Dortyu collection) and other works.

The further evolution of the art of Toulouse-Lautrec was marked by the continuation of the search for psychological expressiveness, developing in parallel with the interest in conveying the specific, unique appearance of the characters depicted. The canvas “In a Cafe” (1891; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) is close in content to the well-known, already mentioned above work by Degas “Absinthe”. But in the interpretation of Toulouse-Lautrec, the image of two slumped drunkards, stupidly frozen at a dirty table, acquires an even more dramatic color.

The position of Toulouse-Lautrec is the ironic position of a satirist who constantly uses the method of grotesque exaggeration. A similar feature was clearly manifested in such paintings as "La Goulue entering the Moulin Rouge" (1892; Paris, Bernheim de Ville collection), "Dance at the Moulin Rouge" (1890; Philadelphia, private collection). The desire to convey a bright originality of movements, gestures, poses is especially clearly seen in the image of a nara dancing in the depths of the hall. The grotesque silhouette of a man making unusual entrecha with flexible legs, and the sharp movements of his red-haired partner in red stockings create a sharp and laconic image, which has features that bring it closer to the expressiveness of the poster.

The role of drawing in the art of the master is extremely great. The sharpness, expressiveness, richness and variety of Toulouse-Lautrec's graphic style make him an outstanding draftsman of the 19th century. Graphics is a significant part of his creative heritage (numerous prints, pastels, lithographs, drawings). A special place is occupied by famous posters. It was during these years that the specificity of the poster as a special form of art was formed. The poster in the modern sense of the word originated in the art of Toulouse-Lautrec and partly Steinlen.

One of the best posters in history is considered to be his color lithograph "Divan japonais" (1892), which advertises a small cafe-concert. The sharp silhouette of a lady in a fashionable tight dress and a fancy hat, unexpectedly brought to the fore, and a nervously sinuous line outlining the contour of a man sitting behind, form the compositional core of the sheet. The figure of the main character, singing on the stage, is deliberately placed in depth in such a way that only her dress and her hands covered in long dark gloves are visible, and her head is cut off by the frame of the sheet. As a result, looking at the poster, as if he himself finds himself in the atmosphere of the auditorium, on the stage of which the singer Yvette Gilber performs.

The image of Yvette Guilbert Lautrec addressed many times. In 1894, he made a whole album of lithographs, where he captured the characteristic movements and the subtlest shades of mood, facial expressions of the star of Montmartre. One of the preparatory versions of the portrait of Yvette Gilbert, made in the same year with multi-color oil essence, is stored in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

In some portraits of the 1890s. along with a penchant for sharply grotesque, sometimes caricature rendering of the image of a person, other trends can be traced. In the portrait of Dr. Gabriel Tapier de Saleiran (1894; Albi, Museum of Toulouse-Lautrec), the figure of an elegant man walking slowly, behind whom strange people with faces resembling nightmarish masks are swarming, becomes almost a symbol of hopeless despair and loneliness. The same theme can be traced in the painting Jeanne Avril Leaving the Moulin Rouge (1892; Hertford, Wadsworth Athenaeum). A note of sad lyricism sounds in the lonely tired figure of a woman, in her extinct sad face.

The work of Toulouse-Lautrec played a big role in the development of French graphics at the end of the last century. Felix Vallotton (1865-1925) continues further searches for the expressiveness of graphic technique, understood somewhat more formally. Swiss by birth, Vallotton spent most of his life in Paris, and is usually regarded as a representative of the French school. Vallotton also worked a lot as a painter. Interest in the abstract-cold volume in the interpretation of human figures makes him one of the first representatives of the neoclassical version of Art Nouveau in painting. However, Vallotton's graphics were the most significant contribution to the history of art. It was this artist who had the priority in developing new possibilities for woodcuts, which were little practiced at that time.

Illustrating The Book of Masks (1895) by Remy de Gourmont, Vallotton creates a series of portraits of famous writers of that time. Without abandoning the individualization of portrait images, he achieves significant generalization in the characterization of his models. Particularly interesting is the portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky (woodcut), whose tragic complexity of nature was guessed by the author. A white spot of the face with a tensely inquisitive look of attentive eyes stands out clearly against a smooth black background. Sharply scratched lines simply represent the shape of the nose, eyebrows, outlines of hair and wrinkles.

The woodcut "Demonstration" (1893) is interesting for its dynamics. Vallotton shows the scene of the dispersal of the demonstration in a sharp foreshortening from top to bottom, as if seen from the window of the upper floor. The restless flickering of black figures is perceived by the master as if from the position of an artistically accurate outside observer.

A special place in the development of French graphics of the late 19th - early 20th century. occupies the work of Theophile Steinlen (1859-1923). Steinlen continues in the new conditions the tradition of democratic combat magazine graphics in France. The artist is no stranger to the discoveries of such masters of the 1860-1870s as E. Manet, E. Degas, who created a language full of expressive dynamics, sharply and accurately conveying characteristic moments in the ever-moving life of a big city. However, Steinlen is distinguished not so much by the brilliance of artistry in the solution of this or that motive, but by the social and ethical orientation of the figurative solution.

As an accurate and sharp observer of the social life of Paris, he stands closer to the Degas tradition than E. Manet or C. Monet, without, however, reaching the artistic convexity and laconic accuracy of his older contemporary. The strong side of Steinlen's work is the desire for the social effectiveness of art, direct democracy, connection with the life of a not generally “Parisian street”. but with the world of feelings, thoughts, aspirations of the working people of the great city. In this sense, he is rather the heir to Charlet and Daumier, a representative of a democratic, socially pointed line in French realistic culture.

Turning not only to the image of the working people, the working class, but trying to express its feelings and ideals, Steinlen is close to the transition from bourgeois-democratic realism to realism associated with the ideals of socialist democracy. True, these ideals for Steinlen still appear in a vaguely indefinite form, and in this respect the artist shares the strength and weakness of the spontaneously socialist orientation of the views and feelings of the working masses of France in those years.

Many, especially Steinlen's early works (1880-1890s), are illustrations for popular songs of the Parisian suburbs, published in separate collections or on the pages of democratic journals. These are full movements, sometimes sly, sometimes sad, and sometimes sentimental and sensitive in the spirit of a “cruel romance”, as if peeped scenes on the street: “Winter” (1890s; drawing for a poem by R. Ponchon for the magazine “Gilles Bdaz illustration"), "Young workers" - fervent mockingbirds going on a date after work; "The Old Tramp" is a somewhat sentimental composition depicting a lonely old man sharing his meager meal with his only friend, a shaggy, thin dog.

A special place in the master's work is occupied by his illustrations, full of humanism and sad humor, made in 1901 for A. Frans' Crainquebil, so highly appreciated by the author of the story.

The social, anti-imperialist orientation is especially clear in Steinlen's illustration to the song, which tells about the hard lot of a soldier sent to serve in the colonial troops. Anti-militarism and anti-colonialism are a characteristic feature of the works of Steinlen, a journalist, a regular contributor to such left-wing newspapers as Assiet o Ber, Shambar Socialist, and others. Such, for example, are the drawings that castigate the "civilizing" activities of the French and Belgian colonialists in the Congo.

Of great importance are Steinlen's lithographs dedicated to the struggle of the French working class. His "strike" (1898), without outward pathos, expressively conveys the menacing calmness of the strikers gathered at the gates of the factory guarded by soldiers. The gallery of the characters of these workers, tall inhabitants of the north of France, with their faces full of a stern mind and stubborn folk energy, is outlined sharply and sparingly. They are precisely contrasted with such a typical appearance of squat "black-faced" peasant boys dressed in soldier's uniform, driven from the rural south of France here, to a foreign country of mines and factories with unfamiliar and incomprehensible people.

His color lithograph Crime at the Pas de Calais (1893) foreshadows the future revolutionary posters of the 20th century with its laconic social force and drama. The pathos of "Crime at Pas de Calais" is the pathos of bitterness and anger. This magazine illustration-poster is dedicated to a real fact: eight hundred families of striking miners were driven out by the gendarmes into the cold from the huts belonging to the company. The image of a mournfully angry mighty miner with a child on his shoulder, walking at the head of a grief-stricken family and menacingly clutching a miner's pick, grows into a symbol of the unbending will, the irreconcilable revolutionary anger of the working class of France.

Steinlen's art developed during the second half of the 1880s and into the 1890s. and is closely connected with the awakening of the working class and the democratic forces in France in general after the period of domination of reaction that followed the suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871. And although he responded to the events of the First World War with the interesting series Refugees (1916), which opposes the chauvinist propaganda of those years with its humanism, he remains in the history of French culture as a master associated primarily with the democratic and socialist trends in French art of the 1880s. - early 1900s

In general, during these years in France, in the work of its greatest masters, the problems of transition to new forms of realism, to overcoming the diffuse form and the elusive instantaneous perception of the Impressionists, were posed. However, in the conditions of the growing first signs of the general crisis of the culture of capitalism, which entered the final phase of its development, it was impossible to solve the problem of the transition of art to a higher level, while remaining within the worldview and aesthetic ideas of the old society. Hence the duality and inconsistency of the quests of such great masters as Cezanne and Van Gogh. This inconsistency made possible a one-sided interpretation of their heritage by formalist art of the 20th century.

Humanism and realism are progressing in the culture of France of the 20th century. During this period, France gave mankind outstanding composers D. Millau, A. Oneguerre, writers L. Aragon, R. Rolland, A. France, sculptors A. Mayol, A. Bourdelle, artists A. Marquet, A. Matisse, and also became the birthplace of many formalist movements in literature and art.

In the direction of the construction of new types of structures and residential complexes, the architecture of France is developing. The growth of industry, the application of scientific and technological achievements predetermine the use of building materials - glass, steel, iron. Architecture acquires a constructive and functional character at this time. Its development is influenced by the use of reinforced concrete, you can learn more about this by visiting the Construction Forum. The residential building on Rue Franklin in Paris, which was built by Auguste Perret (1874 - 1945), was one of the first such structures.

Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965) made real discoveries in architecture, he was one of the first to use reinforced concrete. Le Corbusier put forward the idea of ​​creating a "Sun City". He implemented his proposals in the African city of Nemura and in India, in the capital of the Punjab state, Chandigarsi.

In the post-war years, the nature of architecture followed the need for the reconstruction of old and restoration of destroyed centers. Construction experience in Le Havre (headed by O. Perret) had a great resonance. Making changes to the buildings of Paris was due to the rapid growth of the population. A number of original structures appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, for example, a suspension bridge at the mouth of the Seine, a radio and television house (project by A. Bernard), and a UNESCO house (project by M. Breuer).

Paris was the center of artistic life in France. Artists belonging to various art schools lived and worked here.

One of the art critics in 1905, seeing the bright paintings that were exhibited at the Paris Autumn Salon, called them savage. The artistic direction from A. Derain (1880 - 1954), M. Vlaminac (1876 - 1958), A. Matisse (1869 - 1954), has since received the name Fauvism (fauve (fr.) - wild ). In the works of the Fauvists there is no action, but there is an internal connection of poses, depicted lines and colors.

The painting by A. Matisse "Red Fish" is preserved in Moscow in the Museum. A. S. Pushkin. An aquarium, a round table, flowers, red fish among the greenery behind glass - everything breathes with a light, joyful mood, saturated with calm balance, clarity of lines, and a magnificent play of colors.

The desire to breathe sunny joy into art, youth was characteristic of Matisse. He painted the grace and plasticity of the human body, interiors with windows overlooking flowering gardens, southern landscapes, conveyed the sound of music, clear dance rhythms. The artist had an interesting general perception of life, its colors and forms, rather than specific details. This can be seen in the paintings by A. Matisse "Music", "Big Red Interior", "Dance", "Blue Vase", "Asia", "Spanish Still Life". In the works of Matisse, color prevails among the visual means. The general emotional tone of his paintings creates a decorative interpretation of flowers.

Albert Marquet (1875 - 1947) of the 20th century became a singer of the French landscape. He painted views of Paris (squares, architectural ensembles, quarters, the Seine embankment). Marquet also liked to paint the sea with the silhouettes of sailboats.

The famous artist Fernand Leger (1881 - 1955) saw the future of fine art in synthesis with architecture, as well as in the development of monumental forms. In the 1920s, the style of the artist was formed. The artist's work was influenced by his acquaintance with the architect Le Corbusier. Leger experiments in the field of art synthesis, he creates decorative panels. The artist turns to those that reveal universal human ideas in the cycle of works “Rest. Glory to David." The heroes of his works are full of optimism, skill, vitality.

French art in our imagination is the dreamy landscapes of the Impressionists, the bold and vibrant works of the great painters of the 20th century. . And do you know thatmost of the art movements that we associate with the history of an entire era first appeared in France. Determining exactly the beginning of "French" art may be an impossible task, but the cave paintings were discovered in the Lascaux Cave - the "Sistine Chapel of Primitive Painting" as early as 17,300 years ago, making them one of the earliest artistic traces in human history. Artists of the academic school of painting and sculpture, founded in 1648 and belonging to the French court, worked skillfully. In 1699, academicians organized the first exhibition at the Louvre, which continues to operate over the following centuries, and since 1725 exhibitions have been held at the Carré salon and the concept of "salon" becomes known. This art is inspired by national, international tastes and forms the basis of what we know today as traditional European art. The beginning of the French Revolution was an important event in the history of France and the art of that time. The decline of the academic school, together with the dissolution of the court and its radical restructuring, destabilized the artistic center of the country and plunged the artists of that time into an atmosphere of social upheavals and innovations. So, let's start with the undisputed neoclassical master Jacques-Louis David, stop at the work of such famous artists as Gustave Courbet, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Marcel Duchamp, and take a quick look at French art history from the 18th century to the present day.

NEOCLASSICISM

Jacques Louis David

Oath of the Horatii, 1784-1785

Louvre, Paris

Eugene Delacroix

Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Louvre, Paris

Developing around the same period and stemming from the literature of the time - romanticism, is perceived more emotionally and intimately because of the plots of historical or mythological paintings of neoclassicism. Imagination and inner feelings have become the driving forces in the works, which often focus on nature and fantastic views of distant lands. Théodore Géricault was the author of some of the most famous works of the Romantic era, including The Raft of the Medusa (1818-19), which depicts the tragic shipwreck of 1816, where he captures the details of survival.
The gigantic canvas impresses with its expressive power. Gericault managed to create a vivid image, combining the dead and the living, hope and despair in one picture. The picture was preceded by a huge preparatory work. Gericault made numerous sketches of the dying in hospitals and the corpses of the executed. The Raft of the Medusa was the last of Géricault's completed works. Géricault's contemporary, Eugene Delacroix, depicted historical moments characteristic of the neoclassicists, but at the same time his paintings are endowed with emotional content and violently lively color. Delacroix was looking for inspiration in the east, he was fond of the era of French colonial activity. He also created perhaps the most iconic painting for the French, Liberty Leading the People (1830), which shows the tricolor banner of freedom fluttering and triumphant, surviving the violent mayhem of the revolution.

Gustave Courbet

Artist's studio, 1855

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Claude Monet

Artist's Garden, 1880

National Gallery of Art, Washington

Paul Gauguin

Barbarian Tales, 1902

Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany

Henri Matisse

Spaniard with a tambourine, 1909

State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Russia

Inspired by the palette and style of Cezanne and other Post-Impressionists, Fauvism became one of the earliest forms of modern art. Translated from French, "fauvism" means "wild", it was precisely such associations that a French critic arose when looking at the paintings presented at the autumn salon of 1905. Fauvists are characterized by the dynamism of the stroke, the spontaneity of its application, the desire for emotional strength and passion. Clarity of artistic perception creates a bright color, contrast, purity and sharpness of colors. The rhythm of the composition is always sharp and sharp. Henri Matisse and André Derain became prominent representatives and leaders of this artistic movement. I would especially like to note the "Spanish woman with a tambourine" by Henri Matisse. This composition is a bright representative of Fauvist paintings. The figure of the girl is written in a dynamic color contour and adds contrast and depth of space. It is innovatively unusual and quite expressive. MODERN ART OF THE XX CENTURY

Jean Dubuffet

Le Fugetif, 1977

David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe

Creativity Matisse and Derain added fire modernism and French art began to develop in several directions at once. Main steel avant-garde And cubism is a conceptual geometric view of reality, inspired by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The founder of avant-garde art was Marcel Duchamp, known for his innovative ready-mades. He excelled in cubism, Dadaism- a new avant-garde trend and surrealism. The artist Jean Dubuffet in 1944 holds his first solo exhibition in the Parisian gallery of R. Drouin. A little later, he becomes close to the surrealists and becomes the father of such a direction in painting as art brut- "rough" and "raw" art, very close to the amateur painting of children, self-taught, mentally ill. There are no generally accepted aesthetic standards and any available materials are used. In Europe, the reaction to the popularity of abstract expressionism was art informalism, which was represented by French painters Pierre Soulages and Georges Mathieu. And in the 60s was born new realism like art style with elements of american pop art And neo-dadaism. MODERN ART

Sophie Calle

project “Take Care of Youself”, 2007

La Virreina Image Center, Barcelona

French contemporary art bears the imprint of the past. At that time, while various styles and trends were developing, interest in the psychology of the individual and the nature of the existence of the world was growing in the artistic environment. Famous French artists of the second half of the 20th century are Christian Boltansky, who, like Duchamp, often works with found objects, the photographer Sophie Calle, whose conceptual works are filled with deep intimate experiences, Pierre Wiig and his multimedia projects, which include living beings of all kinds ( recent installations include sculptures of a buzzing living bee colony in MoMA's garden and an aquarium with eel fish located on the roof). According to www.artsy.net

It's more than pretty pictures, it's a reflection of reality. In the works of great artists, you can see how the world and the consciousness of people have changed.

Art is also an attempt to create an alternative reality where you can hide from the horrors of your time, or the desire to change the world. The art of the 20th century rightfully occupies a special place in history. The people who lived and worked in those days survived social upheavals, wars, and the unprecedented development of science; and all this found an imprint on their canvases. Artists of the 20th century took part in creating the modern vision of the world.

Some names are still pronounced with a breath, and some are unfairly forgotten. Someone had such a controversial creative path that we still cannot give him an unambiguous assessment. This review focuses on the 20 greatest artists of the 20th century. Camille Pizarro- French painter. An outstanding representative of impressionism. The artist's work was influenced by John Constable, Camille Corot, Jean Francois Millet.
Born July 10, 1830 in Saint Thomas, died November 13, 1903 in Paris.

Hermitage in Pontoise, 1868

Opera passage in Paris, 1898

Sunset at Varengeville, 1899

Edgar Degas - French artist, one of the greatest impressionists. On the work of Degas, the influence of Japanese graphics was traced. Born July 19, 1834 in Paris, died September 27, 1917 in Paris.

Absinthe, 1876

Star, 1877

Woman combing her hair, 1885

Paul Cezanne - French painter, one of the greatest representatives of post-impressionism. In his work, he sought to reveal the harmony and balance of nature. His work had a huge impact on the worldview of artists of the XX century.
Born January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, France, died October 22, 1906 in Aix-en-Provence.

Gamblers, 1893

Modern Olympia, 1873

Still life with skulls, 1900

Claude Monet- an outstanding French painter. One of the founders of impressionism. In his works, Monet sought to convey the richness and richness of the world around him. His late period is characterized by decorativeism and
The late period of Monet's work is characterized by decorativeism, an increasing dissolution of object forms in sophisticated combinations of color spots.
Born November 14, 1840 in Paris, died December 5, 1926 in Zhverny.

Welk Cliff at Pourville, 1882

After lunch, 1873-1876

Etretat, sunset, 1883

Arkhip Kuindzhi - famous Russian artist, master of landscape painting. He lost his parents early. From an early age, a love for painting began to manifest itself. The work of Arkhip Kuindzhi had a huge impact on Nicholas Roerich.
Born on January 15, 1841 in Mariupol, died on July 11, 1910 in St. Petersburg.

"Volga", 1890-1895

"North", 1879

"View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye", 1882

Pierre Auguste Renoir - French painter, graphic artist, sculptor, one of the prominent representatives of impressionism. He was also known as a master of secular portraiture. Auguste Rodin became the first impressionist to become popular among wealthy Parisians.
Born February 25, 1841 in Limoges France, died December 2, 1919 in Paris.

Pont des Arts in Paris, 1867

Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876

Jeanne Samary, 1877

Paul Gauguin- French artist, ceramic sculptor, graphic artist. Along with Paul Cezan and Vincent van Gogh, he is one of the most prominent representatives of post-impressionism. The artist lived in poverty because his paintings were not in demand.
Born June 7, 1848 in Paris, died May 8, 1903 on the island of Hiva Oa, French Polynesia.

Breton landscape, 1894

Breton village in the snow, 1888

Are you jealous? 1892

Saints Day, 1894

Wassily Kandinsky - Russian and German artist, poet, art theorist. Considered one of the leaders of the avant-garde of the 1st half of the 20th century. One of the founders of abstract art.
Born November 22, 1866 in Moscow, died December 13, 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

Couple on horseback, 1918

Motley life, 1907

Moscow 1, 1916

In grey, 1919

Henri Matisse - one of the greatest French painters and sculptors. One of the founders of the Fauvist movement. In his work, he sought to convey emotions through color. In his work, he was influenced by the Islamic culture of the western Maghreb. Born December 31, 1869 in the city of Le Cateau, died November 3, 1954 in the town of Cimiez.

Square in Saint-Tropez, 1904

Outline of Notre Dame at night, 1902

Woman with a hat, 1905

Dance, 1909

Italian, 1919

Portrait of Delectorskaya, 1934

Nicholas Roerich- Russian artist, writer, scientist, mystic. During his life he painted over 7,000 paintings. One of the outstanding cultural figures of the 20th century, the founder of the "Peace through Culture" movement.
Born October 27, 1874 in St. Petersburg, died December 13, 1947 in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Overseas guests, 1901

Great Spirit of the Himalayas, 1923

Message from Shambhala, 1933

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - Russian artist, graphic artist, theorist, writer, teacher. He was one of the ideologists of the reorganization of art education in the USSR.
Born November 5, 1878 in the city of Khvalynsk, Saratov province, died February 15, 1939 in Leningrad.

"1918 in Petrograd", 1920

"Playing Boys", 1911

Bathing a red horse, 1912

Portrait of Anna Akhmatova

Kazimir Malevich- Russian artist, founder of Suprematism - a trend in abstract art, teacher, art theorist and philosopher
Born February 23, 1879 in Kyiv, died May 15, 1935 in Moscow.

Rest (Society in top hats), 1908

"Peasant women with buckets", 1912-1913

Black Suprematist Square, 1915

Suprematist painting, 1916

On the boulevard, 1903

Pablo Picasso- Spanish painter, sculptor, sculptor, ceramist designer. One of the founders of cubism. The work of Pablo Picasso had a significant impact on the development of painting in the 20th century. According to a poll of readers of Time magazine
Born October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France.

Girl on a ball, 1905

Portrait of Ambroise Vallor, 1910

Three Graces

Portrait of Olga

Dance, 1919

Woman with a flower, 1930

Amadeo Modigliani- Italian painter and sculptor. One of the brightest representatives of expressionism. During his lifetime, he had only one exhibition in December 1917 in Paris. Born July 12, 1884 in Livorno, Italy, died January 24, 1920 from tuberculosis. Received world recognition posthumously World recognition received posthumously.

Cellist, 1909

Spouses, 1917

Joan Hebuterne, 1918

Mediterranean landscape, 1918

Diego Rivera- Mexican painter, muralist, politician. He was the husband of Frida Kahlo. Leon Trotsky found shelter in their house for a short time.
Born December 8, 1886 in Guanajuato, died December 21, 1957 in Mexico City.

Notre Dame de Paris in the rain, 1909

Woman at the well, 1913

Union of Peasants and Workers, 1924

Detroit industry, 1932

Marc Chagall- Russian and French painter, graphic artist, illustrator, theater artist. One of the greatest representatives of the avant-garde.
Born on June 24, 1887 in the city of Liozno, Mogilev province, died on March 28, 1985 in Saint-Paul-de-Provence.

Anyuta (Portrait of a sister), 1910

Bride with fan, 1911

Me and the village, 1911

Adam and Eve, 1912

Mark Rothko(present Mark Rotkovich) is an American artist, one of the founders of abstract expressionism and the founder of color field painting.
The first works of the artist were created in a realistic spirit, however, then by the mid-40s, Mark Rothko turned to surrealism. By 1947, the most important turning point in the work of Mark Rothko happens, he creates his own style - abstract expressionism, in which he departs from objective elements.
Born on September 25, 1903 in the city of Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), died on February 25, 1970 in New York.

Untitled

Number 7 or 11

orange and yellow

Salvador Dali- painter, graphic artist, sculptor, writer, designer, director. Perhaps the most famous representative of surrealism and one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
Designed by Chupa-Chups.
Born May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain, died January 23, 1989 in Spain.

Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1946

The Last Supper, 1955

Woman with a Head of Roses, 1935

My wife Gala, naked, looking at her body, 1945

Frida Kahlo - Mexican artist and graphic artist, one of the brightest representatives of surrealism.
Frida Kahlo started painting after a car accident that left her bedridden for a year.
She was married to the famous Mexican communist artist Diego Rivera. Leon Trotsky found refuge in their house for a short time.
Born July 6, 1907 in Coyoacan, Mexico, died July 13, 1954 in Coyoacan.

The Embrace of Universal Love, Earth, Me, Diego and Coatl, 1949

Moses (Creation Core), 1945

Two Fridas, 1939

Andy Warhole(real. Andrey Varhola) - American artist, designer, director, producer, publisher, writer, collector. The founder of pop art, he is one of the most controversial personalities in the history of culture. Several films have been made based on the life of the artist.
Born August 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died in 1963 in New York.