Post-Impressionism“后印象派”畫家

V. M. 希利爾　仲秋譯

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名兒童教育家、科普作家，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術(shù)讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》，該書寫于20世紀(jì)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”與柵欄柱毫無關(guān)系。文章名中的post意為“后”，來源于拉丁語，指的是印象畫派之后又出現(xiàn)了一種新的繪畫流派，被人們稱作“后印象派”。莫奈的作品就是印象畫派的作品，光線是印象派作品中最重要的角色——你一定還記得吧。

跟馬奈和莫奈一樣，這位后印象派的創(chuàng)始人也是法國人，名叫保羅·塞尚。塞尚最初也是印象派畫家，不過他希望把自己的作品畫得更加具有立體感，能夠像古代大師的繪畫作品那樣經(jīng)典不朽。后來他成功地把作品畫得更具立體感了，可是沒有哪一幅作品可以如古代大師的經(jīng)典作品那樣聞名于世。塞尚一生都在努力作畫，不過他在世時(shí)一直不出名，直到他去世以后，他所畫的畫才開始被人們接受和喜愛。幸運(yùn)的是，塞尚有足夠的錢維持生活，這樣他就不必賣掉自己的畫作。

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 /'s?l?d/ adj. 立體的;立方的

A cube is a solid figure.

temper /'temp?（r）/ n. 脾氣;易怒的性情

sketch /sket?/ n. 素描;速寫;草圖

另一個(gè)后印象派的畫家要比塞尚年輕很多，生活經(jīng)歷也大相徑庭，并不像塞尚那樣在法國南部農(nóng)場里過著平靜的生活。這位后印象派的畫家，名叫文森特·凡·高，是荷蘭人。凡·高曾經(jīng)嘗試在一個(gè)畫店工作，但他完全適應(yīng)不了這個(gè)工作，因?yàn)槊慨?dāng)他認(rèn)為顧客想買的畫不是很好的時(shí)候，他都會忍不住勸說顧客不要買。后來，凡·高做了幾個(gè)月的老師，但是他也不適合當(dāng)老師，因?yàn)樗钠夥浅１┰?。再后來，凡·高決定成為一名牧師，不過這個(gè)想法沒有實(shí)現(xiàn)，因?yàn)樗芸炀陀X得他就讀的牧師學(xué)校很無趣。之后凡·高就去給比利時(shí)的礦工們傳教。凡·高非常同情那些礦工，覺得他們很可憐，于是把所有的錢都給了他們，而自己差點(diǎn)餓死了。此刻，他開始畫畫了，畫的是他非常想幫助的那些人的素描畫像。

他的兄弟定期寄錢給他，以維持他的生活，后來還資助他去巴黎學(xué)習(xí)繪畫。學(xué)成后的凡·高住在法國南部的一個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)里，創(chuàng)作了許多繪畫作品。

這些畫作并沒有像印象派畫家用點(diǎn)來組成畫面，而是用了扭曲的線條。凡·高的一個(gè)朋友曾經(jīng)說過：“他作畫時(shí)十分激動、狂熱，以至于看著他作畫也是一件可怕的事情?！睆乃漠嬜髦幸材芸闯鰜硭L畫時(shí)狂熱的情緒。

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.

不過凡·高接下來的經(jīng)歷卻非常悲慘。他漸漸精神失常，喪失了理智，經(jīng)常發(fā)瘋。他經(jīng)常去一家小餐廳就餐，那里的一個(gè)女服務(wù)員和他是朋友。這個(gè)女服務(wù)員向他要一件圣誕禮物，她開玩笑說：“要是你沒什么可送我的，就把你的一只耳朵給我吧。”

這個(gè)女服務(wù)員在圣誕節(jié)前收到了一個(gè)包裹。她以為是圣誕節(jié)禮物，但打開包裹發(fā)現(xiàn)里面居然是一只耳朵！這個(gè)女服務(wù)員被嚇得不輕。有人發(fā)現(xiàn)可憐的凡·高一個(gè)人神志不清地躺在床上，他用剃刀割掉了自己的右耳。

當(dāng)然，凡·高被人送進(jìn)了瘋?cè)嗽骸Ｔ诏側(cè)嗽捍艘欢螘r(shí)間的凡·高病情有所好轉(zhuǎn)，他后來又創(chuàng)作了不少繪畫作品。但是他的精神疾病并沒有治愈，總是不斷復(fù)發(fā)。在其中一次復(fù)發(fā)時(shí)，他開槍自殺了。

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.

保羅·高更也是法國人，他就是第三個(gè)我要給你介紹的后印象派畫家。高更的生活也不像塞尚那樣平靜，他的生活差不多與凡·高一樣離奇。

高更離奇的生活在他很小的時(shí)候就開始了。他從小離家出走，搭上一艘船就開始了航海的歷程。高更去過世界上許多的地方，后來他回到巴黎開始經(jīng)商。

如果當(dāng)初高更沒有離家出走去航海的話，他多半也不會成為畫家的。據(jù)說有一天高更在街上走著走著，偶然看到一個(gè)商店櫥窗里有許多繪畫作品。這些畫作的顏色都非常明亮，與他航海經(jīng)歷時(shí)在遙遠(yuǎn)的太平洋島嶼上看到的顏色一樣鮮艷亮麗。這些畫作深深地喚起了高更的航海記憶，被觸動的他立刻去打聽這些畫作出自誰人之手。高更就這樣結(jié)識了印象派的畫家，然后他自己也開始畫畫了。高更后來和凡·高成了好朋友，在凡·高精神失常之前，他倆甚至還一起住過一段時(shí)間。不過后來高更搬到了法國另外一個(gè)地區(qū)。

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.

不過高更一直都對他在航海時(shí)去過的太平洋熱帶島嶼上那些漂亮的景色念念不忘。終于有一天，他再次收拾行囊，乘船航行到了塔希提島。在塔希提島，高更找到了自己向往已久的生活方式，他像島上的原住民一樣生活。高更最好的幾幅繪畫作品就是在塔希提島上創(chuàng)作完成的。

這些作品的顏色非常鮮艷，極具熱帶島嶼風(fēng)情，畫作上展現(xiàn)的是島上居民玩樂、休息以及工作的生氣勃勃的場景。這些南太平洋畫作使高更成了著名的畫家。

Word Study

asylum /?'sa?l?m/ n. 精神病院

acquainted /?'kwe?nt?d/ adj. （與某人）相識，熟悉

I am well acquainted with her family.

tropic /'tr?p?k/ n. 熱帶;熱帶地區(qū)