近几年来的一些法国画家正是这么做的。他们给自己的作品举行了一次展览。他们把自己的画挂在展厅的墙上，供人们进来观赏。来参观的人发现，这批画与以往他们看到的画很不一样。这些画就像你对草堆快速一瞥后看到的样子。它们向我们展示了画家们快速观察所画对象时看到的颜色和光线。这种观察叫做“印象”，所以这批画家很快也就被称为“印象派画家”了。
早期的画家从来没有想过这样做。他们总是把马画成一种颜色，干草堆画成另一种颜色，而不管光线下它们是否真的显示那种颜色。事实上，黑马或黄草堆并不总是呈现黑色和黄色。事物的颜色取决于周围环境的光线。一匹黑马在某些地方的光线照射下看起来可能是蓝色的。但你很清楚马不是蓝色的，所以你根本不会留意到在某些光线下马可能看起来真的是蓝色。
画家们过去总是把影子画成褐色、灰色或黑色。不过，如果你仔细观察真正的影子，你会发现，它经常根本就不是褐色、灰色或者黑色。影子常常会呈现出绿色、蓝色、紫色或一些其他颜色。
当然，室外一件物体上明亮的光线和色彩是很难画出来的，因为颜料的颜色并没有自然光线那么明亮。但是，如果你们还记得我曾向你们介绍过康斯太勃尔的话，那就会了解这些印象派画家是怎样使他们绘画的色彩看起来像真的太阳光那样明亮了。他们把颜料涂成一个个小的色块。把颜料弄成各种颜色的色块的确使画面看起来更明亮一些。这些色彩看起来几乎像真正的太阳光那样闪亮。不过，这种方法使画看起来跟传统的画大相径庭。
正因为这个原因，那些参观过法国印象派画家画展的人们并不是很满意。那些人已经习惯了传统的绘画方式，而这种改变实在是太大，所以一上来就无法接受这种新的绘画方式。
过一段时间后，人们开始对印象派画家有了更多了解。人们发现，这些印象派画家正在尝试一种新的绘画方式，而且他们所做的尝试可能很有价值。有一个印象派画家叫克劳德·莫奈。他过去经常坐马车外出，车上装满了画布，而且他花上一整天就画同一个场景。每当光线改变他笔下物体的颜色和面貌时，他就会换一块画布来画。
例如，莫奈曾对同一个草堆画了十五幅画，每幅画色彩和光线的效果都不一样。他曾在一天中的不同时段为法国一座大教堂的正面画了一共二十幅画，每幅画看起来都有所不同。这批画组成了一个非常有趣的系列。但是，如果单独看其中一幅的话，你可能会有点失望，因为画中物体的形式（或形状）看起来好像没你想象中的那么重要。莫奈对光线和颜色感兴趣，而对形式或形状却不以为然。
另外还有一位印象派画家，他的名字和莫奈非常相似，叫马奈。事实上，马奈是印象主义画派的真正创始人。马奈不像莫奈那样把画面分割成许多闪亮的小点。实际上，他在生命的最后十年才开始频繁地使用那种绘画方式。有人曾经问马奈，他印象派画中的主角到底是谁。
马奈回答说：“在任何一幅画中最重要的角色都是光线。”这也正是印象派画家试图在他们的绘画中所展现的。
马奈有幅画名叫《吹短笛的男孩》。拿它和莫奈的《白杨树》相比，你可能更喜欢这幅画。因为尽管光线是一幅画中“最重要的角色”，但通常人比物更有吸引力。
POST-IMPRESSIONISM
后印象主义
POST-IMPRESSIONISM hasn’t anything to do with fence posts.The post part of the title of this chapter means after.It is 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，for he found he couldn’t sell them —no one wanted to buy them.
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，as you will soon see.His name was Vincent Van Gogh （pronounced Van Goch，the Goch rhyming with the Scotch word loch）.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，either，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 paintthat 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.
PUBLIC GARDEN，ARLES（《阿尔勒公共花园》）VAN GOGH（梵高作）Courtesy of The University Prints
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 caféwhere 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.
A third Post-Impressionist was named Paul Gauguin （Go-ganh）.Gauguin was a Frenchman of a different kind from Cezénne，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 theworld.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.