Cloisonnism

クロワゾニスム / 1888–1895 / Style / Fin de Siècle Art

A manner of painting named after the partitions of cloisonné enamel: flat fields of colour enclosed by heavy contour lines. It brought the way of seeing of ukiyo-e prints and stained glass into oil painting, abandoning shaded volume in favour of colour laid down from memory. The technique that prepared the flatness of the poster.

Cloisonnism — Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Cloisonnism — Émile Bernard, Apple Picking at Pont-Aven, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Émile Bernard, Apple Picking at Pont-Aven, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Cloisonnism — Émile Bernard, Breton Women in the Meadow, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Émile Bernard, Breton Women in the Meadow, 1888 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Thick, dark contour lines
Flat colour fields without shading
Decoratively simplified shapes
Colouring drawn from memory

Best used for

Work built cell by cell in separate colours, like stained glass or tilework
Drawing a remembered landscape in simple shapes and colour rather than from life

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Dictionary entry

Type: Set lettering outside the cells in black at the keyline weight, hand drawn or slab
Composition: Divide the picture into a few large cells, edge to edge, partitioned by heavy lines
Material: Flat unmodulated colour from memory inside dark contours, with no shadow or gradient
Caution: Adding heavy outlines afterwards produces no division of colour, only an ordinary picture inside lines. Letting shading or depth back into the cells breaks the enamel like flatness.
Further study: The experiments of Bernard and Anquetin / The reception of Japonisme / The relationship with Synthetism

Related entries

Japonisme (ジャポニスム)Shared effects: Luxury / Calm.Compare Cloisonnism and Japonisme
Art Nouveau (アール・ヌーヴォー)Shared effects: Luxury / Intimacy.Compare Cloisonnism and Art Nouveau

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