Cloisonnism
クロワゾニスム / 1888–1895 / Style / Symbolism and Ornament
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.
Thick, dark contour lines / Flat colour fields without shading / Decoratively simplified shapes / Colouring drawn from memory
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Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Flat illustration systems with bold keylines for packaging and posters · Stained-glass-like brand iconography built from enclosed colour cells
- Type
- Sturdy hand-lettered or slab forms whose outlines match the drawing's keyline weight
- Composition
- Shapes simplified into enclosed cells, tiled edge to edge like leaded glass
- Material
- Flat unmodulated colour inside dark contour lines; no cast shadow, no gradient
- Caution
- Avoid re-admitting shading or atmospheric depth inside the cells; the moment volume returns, the enamel-like flatness breaks.
- Further study
- The experiments of Bernard and Anquetin / The reception of Japonisme / The relationship with Synthetism