What is Symbolism? Who were the artists who painted symbolist paintings? What was Paul
Gauguin searching for when he traveled to Tahiti? And what is Edvard Munch telling us
with his famous painting The Scream? Continue watching the video to learn more about the
late 19th-century art movement called Symbolism.
If you'd like to see more Art episodes, be sure to give us a like and tell us which topics
you want to learn about next!
Symbolism started showing its first signs in literature. Have you ever heard of the
French author called Charles Baudelaire? His famous collection of poems published in 1857
called The Flowers of Evil is an important symbolist literary work that inspired many
artists. However, symbolists didn't just stick to poetry. The movement spread to music, theatre,
and visual arts too. The term symbolism itself, coming from the word symbol, was popularized
by the poet and essayist Jean Moreas. Moreas wrote the Symbolist Manifesto and published
it in the French magazine Le Figaro in 1886. The Futurist Manifesto was also published
in that same magazine in 1909. The name symbolism doesn’t necessarily mean that you should
always search for hidden signs in symbolist paintings, it rather means that these artists
rejected realistic depictions of the world and by using metaphors showed more interest
in the imaginary and spiritual. Symbolist works of art were meant to suggest subjective
ideas and not just describe the real world!
It's important to know that Symbolism happened as a reaction to art movements like impressionism,
naturalism, and realism. Symbolists wanted to reject naturalism and preferred idealism
to realism. The movement became an international phenomenon, present in artworks made by French,
Belgian, English, Austrian, and Norwegian artists. Style-wise symbolist artworks are
very diverse. However, symbolists did share a tendency to lean towards mythological scenes,
biblical imagery, fantastic themes, allegorical stories, and dream-like settings. They wanted
to discover the mysteries of life, not through science, but through their own artistic expression.
They were interested in the imaginary while searching for universal truths.
Many symbolists used mythology to explore different subjects and feelings. For example,
Gustave Moreau painted Orpheus, a famous character from Greek mythology. The artist showed a
scene in which dead Orpheus's head lies on a lyre that represents his infinite musical
talent. The girl, dressed in embroidered draperies, holding the lyre stares at Orpheus's head
in a melancholic way. In the background, we see a dream-like landscape. In this artwork,
we see the mysterious and fantastical themes symbolists liked to represent while exploring
dark topics like death. More of Moreau's interest in mythology is visible in paintings like
Oedipus and Sphinx, Galatea, and Salome Dancing before Herod, who was frequently depicted
by symbolists trying to represent the idea of a femme fatale.
Symbolists looked for inspiration in literary works too. We can look at Auguste Rodin's
Gates of Hell as a symbolist work of art. The French sculptor found inspiration in Dante's
famous work The Divine Comedy. With a large number of human figures coming out of Rodin's
door we can sense the misery, the frustration, and the pain of the characters mentioned in
Dante's work. Rodin truly created a fascinating visual expression of Dante's written piece.
Symbolists were also interested in exploring mysticism, spirituality, and dreams. They
didn't care to depict the objective and the real in their artworks. They wanted to show
anxiety, sin, love, death, and the unknown. Some were, however, more pessimistic, and
some more optimistic in their views towards the world. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian artist
who spent his life going through much emotional suffering. His works often show human helplessness,
fear, darkness, and feelings of melancholy and despair. His most famous artwork, The
Scream, can be read as both an expressionist and a symbolist piece. The painting became
a symbol of troubling mental states like anxiety and fear. The intense orange and blue colors
and Munch's strong brushstrokes help the viewer understand the internal anxiousness of the
main screaming figure.
The internal struggle was a theme explored by many symbolists. Belgian artist Fernand
Khnopff's painting I lock my door upon myself takes its title from a poem called Who Shall
Deliver Me written by Christina Rossetti. Like Munch, Khnopff too depicted a scene of
inner turmoil, but in a different way. Khnopff, like a number of other symbolists, was inspired
by the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood consisted of a group of artists
in Victorian Britain who were fascinated by medieval times, literature and themes like
love, death, beauty, and nature. And Christina Rossetti herself was associated with this
movement. Objects we see in this painting, like the drying lilies, or the head of Hypnos
- the god of sleep, are all there for us to interpret and analyze while we search for
meaning.
Symbolists often wanted to escape reality and shelter in their own world. This is probably
most obvious when looking at the life and work of the French artist Paul Gauguin. Gauguin
left France in 1891 so that he could go to a far-away place: Tahiti. There, Gauguin searched
for his own idealized, and fictional, version of utopia. He also painted many of his masterpieces
while living here, one of which is a painting called Where Do We Come From? What Are We?
Where Are We Going?. Gaugin clearly asks all the mystical questions that troubled many
symbolists. This large painting shows a number of human figures, animals, and plants, painted
in intense blue, purple, and yellow shades. You can even spot Tahiti's volcanic mountains
in the background. And if we look at the painting from right to left, we can notice that the
three questions of the title are all represented. We see the baby on the right - "where do we
come from", a standing figure in the center - "what are we", and a crouching old lady
on the left - "where are we going". By using this philosophical title, Gauguin might have
wanted us to search for answers in the symbols of the painting or raise these mysterious
questions ourselves.
You might be wondering, were there any women artists connected to Symbolism? Meet Evelyn
De Morgan, a London-born artist whose works also show mythological scenes set in dream-like
scenery that some symbolists loved to paint. In her work Ariadne at Naxos, Ariadne is shown
alone at the island, left by her lover Theseus. While artists often showed Theseus sailing
away and leaving, De Morgan positioned Ariadne as the central character in her painting.
Evelyn De Morgan also painted other famous mythological figures such as Cassandra and
Helen of Troy. Another one of her symbolist pieces called Daughters of the Mist shows
four female figures, dressed in beautiful drapery, surrounded by clouds and rainbows.
The inspiration for the painting might have come from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale
The Little Mermaid, which again shows the symbolist tendency to lean towards the fantastical
and imaginary. De Morgan’s artworks bridged the gap between the meditative powers the
symbolises believed their art had, and the more decadent Aesthetic Movement, which believed
art should exist simply to be beautiful. Both movements value the painterly qualities of
artwork, such as composition and colour, above narrative and that can certainly be seen in
De Morgan’s late works such as Twilight.
Symbolists wanted art to express inner feelings and ideas, they wanted to search for the real
universal truth and show that through their art. While many symbolist works differ in
style, they have certainly influenced modern art movements like surrealism or expressionism.
Symbolists, like many artists before and after them, were interested in the mystical and
the unknown. They wanted to discover the hidden philosophical meanings of life, and for that,
they used one of the best tools that humans thought of - art.
So what do you think about Symbolism and its artists? Which artwork did you enjoy most?
Share your opinion in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to our channel. Also find
us on Instagram for your daily dose of culture from Curious Muse!
If you enjoy our content and would like to support us please consider donating to us.
Our project is self-funded and to continue running it we need your help. All donations
will go 100% towards creating more great stories for you!