Deck 25: Post-Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century

Question 1

The painting Starry Night (1889) shares which feature with Impressionist paintings?

A) an interest in social gatherings
B) a fondness for landscape
C) experiments with the effects of light on rippling water
D) experiments with multiple vantage points

Answer 1

a fondness for landscape

Question 2

Who painted The Yellow Christ (1889)?

A) Gauguin
B) Munch
C) Rousseau
D) Seurat

Answer 2

Gauguin

Question 3

The techniques of dream construction apply most obviously to which style?

A) Post-Impressionism
B) Symbolism
C) naïve painting
D) Impressionism

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which artist spent most of the last years of his life living in Tahiti?

A) Rousseau
B) Gauguin
C) Moreau
D) Munch

Question 5

Which is true of van Gogh's Self-Portrait featured in Chapter 25?

A) the brushstrokes form zigzags
B) the background consists of a swirling array of multiple colors
C) his form dissolves into the background
D) the brushstrokes form spirals

Question 6

In line with Symbolist goals, the setting of The Yellow Christ is

A) Breton.
B) Jerusalem.
C) Golgotha.
D) Rome.

Question 7

Who painted Starry Night (1889)?

A) Cézanne
B) van Gogh
C) Gauguin
D) Munch

Question 8

Which artist famously cut off part of his own ear in a fit of jealous rage, then killed himself in 1890?

A) van Gogh
B) Cézanne
C) Gauguin
D) Seurat

Question 9

Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles exhibits all the following characteristics EXCEPT

A) an absence of human figures, except in portraits.
B) a coupling of images.
C) autobiographical content.
D) a plethora of pure colors.

Question 10

"Le Douanier" was the nickname of which painter of The Dream (1910)?

A) van Gogh
B) Moreau
C) Seurat
D) Rousseau

Question 11

Due to his use of color, Seurat has been called both a

A) Pointillist and a Neo-Impressionist.
B) Symbolist and an Impressionist.
C) Pointillist and a Symbolist.
D) Symbolist and a Post-Impressionist.

Question 12

The painting Starry Night(1889) demonstrates all the following features EXCEPT

A) intense, expressive color.
B) powerful imagery.
C) illusionistic realism.
D) a strong sense of line.

Question 13

Whose best known painting The Scream shows elements of both Post-Impressionism and Symbolism?

A) Seurat
B) Munch
C) Rousseau
D) Moreau

Question 14

What is the central figure of Gauguin's Nevermore?

A) the Crucifixion
B) a reclining nude
C) a Tahitian landscape
D) Gauguin

Question 15

Which painter of Galatea (1880-1881) was the leader of the French Symbolist movement?

A) Rousseau
B) Toulouse-Lautrec
C) Moreau
D) Cézanne

Question 16

How did Picasso's influence alter Cézanne's early Impressionist style?

A) by inspiring him to use brighter colors
B) by convincing him to pursue a broader range of subject matter
C) by inspiring him to accentuate his brushstrokes
D) by convincing him to imbue his paintings with a sense of wavy, slightly unruly motion

Question 17

Which "naïve" painter combined nineteenth-century trends of subjectivity and objectivity in works that looked forward to twentieth-century developments?

A) Moreau
B) Rousseau
C) Seurat
D) Gauguin

Question 18

A "naïve" painter is one who

A) paints without a patron or a commission.
B) has no formal training.
C) paints scenes of childhood innocence.
D) never sells a painting.

Question 19

Which artist depended upon his brother Theo for financial support, as he was unable to sell his artworks during his lifetime?

A) Munch
B) Gauguin
C) Cézanne
D) van Gogh

Question 20

Which is NOT a feature of Gauguin's Self-Portrait with Halo?

A) a clearly divided picture plane
B) traditional motifs
C) Symbolist colors
D) a single-dimensional visage

Question 21

The painting Nevermore takes its title from a line in a famous poem by Paul Verlaine.

Question 22

An important difference between Post-Impressionism and Impressionism is that Post-Impressionists

A) made use of bright colors.
B) made use of dull, flat colors.
C) clearly defined the edges of forms.
D) used distinctive brushstrokes.

Question 23

The works of Cézanne and Seurat exemplify the Post-Impressionists' interest in emotional content as opposed to formal and structural values.

Question 24

Whose Still Life with Apples (1875-77) fulfilled his desire to "astonish Paris with an apple"?

A) Seurat
B) Toulouse-Lautrec
C) Cézanne
D) Gauguin

Question 25

Like Rembrandt, van Gogh created physiognomy primarily through variations in lightness and darkness.

Question 26

Gauguin's interest in Oceanic and Far Eastern art led him to abandon the Western tradition completely.

Question 27

Toulouse-Lautrec's lithograph posters differed from his paintings primarily in their

A) texture.
B) subject matter.
C) tone.
D) sense of energy.

Question 28

Despite the sense of despair he created in many of his paintings, Munch was known for his affable, sunny disposition.

Question 29

The paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit all the following characteristics EXCEPT

A) tight, precise brushwork.
B) clearly defined color areas.
C) partial, oblique views.
D) the influence of Japanese prints.

Question 30

Some of van Gogh's most famous works were completed while he was in a mental asylum.

Question 31

Which of the following elements of The Scream (1893) would be considered most in line with Post-Impressionism?

A) its depiction of a state of mind
B) its use of Christian allegory
C) its fidelity to observable reality
D) its expressive distortion of form

Question 32

Which artist was famous for painting scenes of dance halls and nightclubs, such as Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge (1892)?

A) Seurat
B) Toulouse-Lautrec
C) Cézanne
D) Rousseau

Question 33

Symbolists rejected mythological topics along with all other traditional subject matter.

Question 34

Cézanne's early pictures were predominantly black and obsessed with erotic and violent themes.

Question 35

Seurat believed that the human eye would merge contiguous dots of separate colors, so that the brain would process the color formed by the merging of the two separate colors.

Question 36

Seurat's interest in theories of color led him to

A) create forms from large blocks of color.
B) build up color through dots of pure color.
C) paint monochromatic canvases.
D) paint the same scene repeatedly under numerous different lights.

Question 37

The figure in Gauguin's Idol with the Seashell represents the universe's divinity worshipped on Easter Island.

Question 38

Cézanne's later work exhibits all the following characteristics EXCEPT

A) the complete abandonment of figuration.
B) patchworks of shifting colors.
C) an interest in geometrical figures and paint daubs.
D) experimentations in spatial representation.

Question 39

Whose Mont Sainte-Victoire conveys his interest in faceted, crystalline forms?

A) Seurat
B) van Gogh
C) Cézanne
D) Moreau

Question 40

Which artist's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte demonstrates his technique of divisionism?

A) Rousseau
B) Moreau
C) Gauguin
D) Seurat

Question 41

Compare the imagery of Moreau with that of Post-Impressionism and Impressionism. How does the application of paint and the use of color differ, and how do they affect the meaning of the works?

Question 42

What explains European artists' interest in Oceania? How did that interest affect their work?

Question 43

Pick three artists from Chapter 25 and describe their particular brushstrokes. How do these contribute to the effect of the work?

Question 44

Discuss the role of the artist's personality in works by Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Munch. In the case of van Gogh, particularly, has the legend of the artist made it impossible to appreciate his art objectively?

Question 45

In the early twentieth century, Cézanne and Seurat were considered polar opposites by critics. How would you describe their similarities and differences?

Question 46

Using the illustrations in Chapter 25, describe the differences between Symbolism and Post-Impressionism. Which artists combined the two styles?

Question 47

What were the defining characteristics of Post-Impressionism? What did it retain from Impressionism, and how did it depart from that earlier movement?