Post-Impressionism“后印象派”画家

V. M. 希利尔　仲秋译

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美国著名儿童教育家、科普作家，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的艺术史》，该书写于20世纪二三十年代。

Post-Impressionism hasn’t anything to do with fence posts. The post part of the title of this chapter means after. It is a Latin word. So the title might be After-Impressionism which means the newer kinds of painting that came after the Impressionistic paintings. You remember Monet’s work is Impressionism， where light is the most important person.

The father of Post-Impressionism was Paul Cézanne. He was a Frenchman， like Manet and Monet. At first he was an Impressionist himself， but he said he wanted to make Impressionism something solid and lasting like the art of the Old Masters. And after a while his work did become more solid， although none of his pictures became as well-known as those of the Old Masters. Cézanne worked hard all his life at painting， but he never became popular as a painter until after his death. Luckily for him， he had money enough to live on without having to sell his paintings.

“后印象派”与栅栏柱毫无关系。文章名中的post意为“后”，来源于拉丁语，指的是印象画派之后又出现了一种新的绘画流派，被人们称作“后印象派”。莫奈的作品就是印象画派的作品，光线是印象派作品中最重要的角色——你一定还记得吧。

跟马奈和莫奈一样，这位后印象派的创始人也是法国人，名叫保罗·塞尚。塞尚最初也是印象派画家，不过他希望把自己的作品画得更加具有立体感，能够像古代大师的绘画作品那样经典不朽。后来他成功地把作品画得更具立体感了，可是没有哪一幅作品可以如古代大师的经典作品那样闻名于世。塞尚一生都在努力作画，不过他在世时一直不出名，直到他去世以后，他所画的画才开始被人们接受和喜爱。幸运的是，塞尚有足够的钱维持生活，这样他就不必卖掉自己的画作。

Another Post-Impressionist who was younger than Cézanne had a very different kind of life. This other painter didn’t live quietly on a farm in southern France as Cézanne did. His name was Vincent Van Gogh. He was a Dutchman. He tried working in an art store for his living， but if he thought his customers wanted to buy poor pictures， he gave them such lectures that he didn’t get along well at all. So he tried being a schoolmaster for a few months. I don’t believe he could have been a very good teacher， because he had a violent temper. Then he decided to be a clergyman， a minister. This didn’t work because he soon got tired of the college for ministers where he was studying. And so he set out as a missionary to the workers in the Belgian mines. He felt so sorry for these poor miners that he gave away all his money and nearly starved himself. At this time he began to draw pictures， sketches of the people he wanted so much to help.

His brother sent him money to live on and got him to go to Paris to study art. Then Van Gogh went to live in a little town in southern France， and there he painted many pictures.

These paintings are made up of squirming lines of paint instead of the dots of paint that the Impressionists used. A friend of his said， “He paints so fiercely that it is terrible to watch him.”  His pictures look as if he had painted them with fierce intensity.

Word Study

solid /'sɒlɪd/ adj. 立体的;立方的

A cube is a solid figure.

temper /'tempə（r）/ n. 脾气;易怒的性情

sketch /sketʃ/ n. 素描;速写;草图

另一个后印象派的画家要比塞尚年轻很多，生活经历也大相径庭，并不像塞尚那样在法国南部农场里过着平静的生活。这位后印象派的画家，名叫文森特·凡·高，是荷兰人。凡·高曾经尝试在一个画店工作，但他完全适应不了这个工作，因为每当他认为顾客想买的画不是很好的时候，他都会忍不住劝说顾客不要买。……