Puzzling and mysterious, this daring and experimental composition became a manifesto for a new approach to painting. Other articles where Vision After the Sermon is discussed: Synthetism: …decorative style is Gauguin’s “Vision After the Sermon” (1888; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh). Gauguin’s Vision of the Sermon is one of the most famous images in the history of art.
Vision after the Sermon was purchased by the National Gallery (where it has since stayed) in 1925 for £ 1,150 by the then director, James Caw.At the time the purchase must have seemed a courageous choice given the widespread antipathy the British public had for Post-Impressionism as exhibited at Roger Fry's exhibitions in London in 1910 and 1912. This large work includes peasant women leaving the church in the lower part of the canvas; above them is the vision of Jacob wrestling with the angel, which was the sermon of the day. Vision after the Sermon is one of the most important works the artist painted in Brittany.Breton peasants, which Gauguin viewed as exotic, are here plain types treated as flat silhouettes and painted in bright colours and simplified shapes. With its surprising colour, its bold outlines and deliberately flattened shapes, Gauguin set a new benchmark for the artist’s freedom to distort and exaggerate for expressive … The painting is divided into two parts by a large diagonal tree-trunk, which reminds us of the Japanese woodcuts.