Cezanne, van Gogh, and broken colour

I’ve just been to the wonderful new exhibition at the National Gallery in London called “After Impressionism – Inventing Modern Art”.

The exhibition celebrates the achievements of three giants of the era: Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin during a period of great upheaval, between 1880 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, when artists broke with established tradition and laid the foundations for the art of the 20th and the 21st centuries.

I loved all of it, and just seeing so many well known paintings in the flesh was amazing. There is something very special and emotional in seeing up close the actual paintings, the brush marks, the thickness of the paint, the places where Vincent van Gogh dragged paint with his fingers. You don’t get that connection from the same paintings reproduced in a book.

One thing that struck me in some of the paintings was the way the artists used broken colour to enhance the excitement of their pictures. Let me show you what I mean.

Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne. Bathers

Take a look at the way Cezanne used broken colour in some of the areas that could have been quite flat and boring. Broken colour is the use of different colours of the same tonal value side by side. This brings a vibrancy to the patch of paint and a lot of visual interest.

Below is the bottom left hand corner of the painting above where you can see this effect in both the blue of the cloth and the ochre of the ground.

Vincent van Gogh

Possibly the master of broken colour, van Gogh seems to have used it in so many of his masterpieces. Here’s one from the exhibition.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunset at Montmajour

There’s certainly a lot of broken colour going on here! But take a look at the sky, which he could have painted in a flat colour.

I just love this! What an amazing collection of colours! What an inspiration to try something like this! It brings life and zing and vibrancy. I certainly need to be reminded to do this when I paint. How about you? Do you like this effect or not? I’d love to read your comments below…

#Brokencolour #Cezanne #VanGogh