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。后来，凡·高做了几个月的老师，但是他也不适合当老师，因为他的脾气非常暴躁。再后来，凡·高决定成为一名牧师，不过这个想法没有实现，因为他很快就觉得他就读的牧师学校很无趣。之后凡·高就去给比利时的矿工们传教。凡·高非常同情那些矿工，觉得他们很可怜，于是把所有的钱都给了他们，而自己差点饿死了。此刻，他开始画画了，画的是他非常想帮助的那些人的素描画像。

他的兄弟定期寄钱给他，以维持他的生活，后来还资助他去巴黎学习绘画。学成后的凡·高住在法国南部的一个小镇里，创作了许多绘画作品。

这些画作并没有像印象派画家用点来组成画面，而是用了扭曲的线条。凡·高的一个朋友曾经说过：“他作画时十分激动、狂热，以至于看着他作画也是一件可怕的事情。”从他的画作中也能看出来他绘画时狂热的情绪。

And now comes a sadder part of Van Gogh’s life. His mind began to give way. He began to go crazy. One day a friend of his， who was a waitress in a café where Van Gogh sometimes went， asked him for a present and just in fun she said to him， “Well， if you can’t give me anything else， you might give me one of your big ears.”

Just before Christmas the waitress received a package. She thought it was a Christmas present. But when she opened it， out fell—an ear！ The waitress was horrified. Poor Van Gogh was found in bed， completely out of his mind. He had cut off his right ear with a razor.

Of course he had to be taken to an asylum， where he finally got well enough to paint some more pictures. But the attacks of brain trouble kept coming back and during one of them Van Gogh shot himself.

不过凡·高接下来的经历却非常悲惨。他渐渐精神失常，丧失了理智，经常发疯。他经常去一家小餐厅就餐，那里的一个女服务员和他是朋友。这个女服务员向他要一件圣诞礼物，她开玩笑说：“要是你没什么可送我的，就把你的一只耳朵給我吧。”

这个女服务员在圣诞节前收到了一个包裹。她以为是圣诞节礼物，但打开包裹发现里面居然是一只耳朵！这个女服务员被吓得不轻。有人发现可怜的凡·高一个人神志不清地躺在床上，他用剃刀割掉了自己的右耳。

当然，凡·高被人送进了疯人院。在疯人院待了一段时间的凡·高病情有所好转，他后来又创作了不少绘画作品。但是他的精神疾病并没有治愈，总是不断复发。在其中一次复发时，他开枪自杀了。

A third Post-Impressionist was named Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was a Frenchman of a different kind from Cézanne， and he led a life almost as strange as Van Gogh’s.

Gauguin began a different life early. He ran away from home when still a boy， got on a ship and went to sea. He made several voyages as a sailor to different parts of the world. Then he came back to Paris and went into business.

Perhaps Gauguin would never have become a painter if he had not run away to sea. For one day when he was walking down the street he came to a shop window that had some paintings in it. These paintings had the brightness and color that Gauguin had seen in the faraway Pacific isles. They brought back to him memories of his voyages so clearly that he asked who the painters were. Thus he became acquainted with the Post-Impressionists who had painted these pictures. Gauguin began then to paint too. He became a friend of Van Gogh and even lived with that artist for a while before Van Gogh lost his reason. Later， Gauguin moved to another part of France.

保罗·高更也是法国人，他就是第三个我要给你介绍的后印象派画家。高更的生活也不像塞尚那样平静，他的生活差不多与凡·高一样离奇。

高更离奇的生活在他很小的时候就开始了。他从小离家出走，搭上一艘船就开始了航海的历程。高更去过世界上许多的地方，后来他回到巴黎开始经商。

如果当初高更没有离家出走去航海的话，他多半也不会成为画家的。据说有一天高更在街上走着走着，偶然看到一个商店橱窗里有许多绘画作品。这些画作的颜色都非常明亮，与他航海经历时在遥远的太平洋岛屿上看到的颜色一样鲜艳亮丽。这些画作深深地唤起了高更的航海记忆，被触动的他立刻去打听这些画作出自谁人之手。高更就这样结识了印象派的画家，然后他自己也开始画画了。高更后来和凡·高成了好朋友，在凡·高精神失常之前，他俩甚至还一起住过一段时间。不过后来高更搬到了法国另外一个地区。

But he could not forget the beautiful tropic islands of the Pacific he had seen on his voyages. One day he packed up again and sailed for the island of Tahiti. There in Tahiti the painter found the life he liked best. He lived like one of the native islanders. And there he painted his best pictures.

These paintings are bright with the color of the tropics and show in their brightness the people of the islands in their play and rest and work. These South Sea pictures are the ones that made Gauguin a famous painter.

不過高更一直都对他在航海时去过的太平洋热带岛屿上那些漂亮的景色念念不忘。终于有一天，他再次收拾行囊，乘船航行到了塔希提岛。在塔希提岛，高更找到了自己向往已久的生活方式，他像岛上的原住民一样生活。高更最好的几幅绘画作品就是在塔希提岛上创作完成的。

这些作品的颜色非常鲜艳，极具热带岛屿风情，画作上展现的是岛上居民玩乐、休息以及工作的生气勃勃的场景。这些南太平洋画作使高更成了著名的画家。

Word Study

asylum /ə'saɪləm/ n. 精神病院

acquainted /ə'kweɪntɪd/ adj. （与某人）相识，熟悉

I am well acquainted with her family.

tropic /'trɒpɪk/ n. 热带;热带地区