Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond

Book excerpt: In this volume, examples of Post-Impressionism from one of the world's premier art museums provide an overview of innovations ushered in by the popular movement. Representing a pivotal moment in the history of European art, the Post-Impressionists created some of the most recognizable and stylistically inventive paintings of the modern era. Published to accompany a major exhibition, this book presents over one hundred celebrated paintings from the unparalleled collection of Paris's Musee d'Orsay. Focusing on the decades around 1900, this publication presents late Impressionist landmarks by Monet and Renoir; early modern masterpieces by Cezanne, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh; and avant-garde canvases by the Nabis painters Denis, Bonnard, and Vuillard. The volume also provides a unique look at the Musee d'Orsay's outstanding collection of Pointillism, including works by artists such as Seurat and Signac. Together these works offer a fresh assessment of seismic transitions in the European art world at the turn of the twentieth century that ushered in the birth of modern painting and produced lasting treasures of its own.