Knowra Synthetism Synthetism Synthetism was a late nineteenth-century painting movement that combined simplified forms and flat areas of color to unite subject matter, emotion, and design.
Cloisonnism : A painting style that encloses flat areas of strong color within dark, contour-like outlines. Its bold outlines and bounded color fields gave Synthetist compositions a clear formal vocabulary.
Pont-Aven School : A loose group of artists who worked in and around Pont-Aven, Brittany, in the late nineteenth century. The Breton community provided the main setting in which Synthetism took shape.
Paul Sérusier : A French painter whose encounter with Gauguin in Brittany inspired the Nabi movement. Sérusier carried Synthetist color and form principles back to Paris.
Vision After the Sermon : An 1888 painting by Paul Gauguin showing Breton women imagining Jacob wrestling with an angel. Its red field, simplified figures, and strong diagonal exemplify Synthetist design.
Color symbolism : The use of color to convey ideas, feelings, or associations beyond accurate description. Synthetist painters used color to express emotion rather than merely reproduce appearances.
Paul Gauguin : A French post-Impressionist painter whose work helped establish Synthetism’s characteristic style. Gauguin became the movement’s most influential painter and principal theorist.
Maurice Denis : A French painter and writer associated with the Nabis and modernist theories of painting. Denis articulated how Synthetist painting made the canvas an arranged surface of colors.
The Talisman : A small 1888 landscape by Paul Sérusier painted under Gauguin’s guidance in Brittany. Its highly simplified patches of color became a touchstone for the Nabis’ understanding of Synthetism.
Simplification : The reduction of complex forms or information to a smaller number of essential features. Reducing visible detail helped painters make subject, feeling, and design act together.
Émile Bernard : A French painter whose simplified, outlined forms contributed to the development of Synthetism. Bernard’s experiments in Brittany helped define the style’s flat shapes and strong contours.
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