Symbolist Art Explained: A Brief History of Symbolist Art

Symbolism was an avant-garde visual art movement in Europe during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Symbolist art veered away from Impressionism’s focus on the natural world, instead choosing subject matter based on visions, dreams, and mythology. While other artistic movements of that era like Art Nouveau and aestheticism were centered in modernity, Symbolism took a more classical approach with a focus on spirituality and religious iconography.

Symbolism grew out of a period of decadence with Symbolist artists reacting to what they viewed as a time of decaying morality.

• Symbolism in literature: In 1886, Greek poet Jean Moréas wrote Le Symbolisme (“The Symbolist Manifesto”). This manifesto was published in a French newspaper called Le Figaro, establishing Symbolism as a literary movement. Another key writer of the Symbolism movement was French poet Charles Baudelaire, whose collection of poetry in Les Fleurs du mal (1857) set the stage for Symbolism in the visual arts.
• Symbolism in France: Near the end of the nineteenth century, French poet Stéphane Mallarmé began hosting meetings at his Paris apartment to discuss Symbolism. Among the attendees of these meetings was Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. Symbolist ideas spread through the art community in France, impacting painters like Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon, and Gustave Moreau. In 1891, art critic Albert Aurier was the first to describe Symbolism as a formidable art movement in his essay, “Symbolism in Painting: Paul Gauguin.”
• International Symbolist movement: After its establishment in France, Symbolism spread across Europe as far as England and Russia. Swiss painters like Ferdinand Hodler adopted the Symbolist aesthetic. Dutch-Indonesian painter Jan Toorop developed his own style of Symbolism.
• Symbolism’s influence: The Symbolist movement set the stage for other modern art movements like Surrealism, Expressionism, and modernism, inspiring painters like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

Symbolist painters rejected Naturalism, instead using vivid and imaginative imagery.

1. 1. Biblical symbolism: As Symbolist painters moved away from modern ideas about materialism, some used Christian iconography to capture their ideas. Examples of this can be found in Gustave Moreau’s Salome Dancing before Herod (1876) and Paul Gauguin’s The Yellow Christ (1889).
2. 2. Mythological symbolism: Symbolist painters also used classic myths as inspiration for their symbolic artworks. For example, Arnold Böcklin pulled from Greek mythology to paint Odysseus and Calypso (1883).
3. 3. Psychological symbolism: The Symbolism art movement focused on subjectivity and emotion to capture the human experience. In artworks like Odilon Redon’s The Crying Spider (1881) and Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907–1908), visual symbolism is employed to communicate themes of love, fear, death, and desire.

To learn more about the Symbolism movement, explore the artworks from these Symbolist painters.

1. 1. Odilon Redon (1840–1916): Odilon Redon was an influential French Symbolist and Surrealist whose imaginative paintings captured a world of fantasy and dreams. During the first half of his career, Redon created primarily monochromatic black and white paintings. With pieces like Cactus Man (1881) and The Eye, Like a Strange Balloon Moves Towards Infinity (1882), Redon used frightening imagery to evoke emotion.
2. 2. Edvard Munch (1863–1944): Norwegian painter Edvard Munch grew up surrounded by tragedy and illness. This emotional turmoil fueled many of his haunting paintings, including his most famous work of art, The Scream (1893). Many of Munch’s paintings symbolize psychological themes of love and lust, as in The Dance of Life (1899) and Madonna (1894–1895).
3. 3. Gustave Moreau (1826–1898): Deeply inspired by Greek and Roman mythology, Gustave Moreau painted several influential symbolist paintings, including Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864) and Jupiter and Semele (1895). Following the death of his friend and mentor, Théodore Chassériau, Moreau travelled throughout Italy to study artworks from the Renaissance and Romantic eras.
4. 4. James Ensor (1860–1949): Born in Belgium, James Ensor studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels when he was only 17 years old. There he met other like-minded Belgian artists, including Fernand Khnopff. With paintings like Death and the Masks (1897) and Self-Portrait with Masks (1899), Ensor used symbolic masks to explore themes of falsehood, religion, and death.

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