Symbolism refers to movements in both literature and the visual arts during the late 19th Century. It appeared in the 1880s among French poets, les poètes maudits, who developed an idealistic type of verse, as a reaction to Naturalism and Realism . The Symbolists drew inspiration from the mid-century poetry and critical writing of Charles Baudelaire and also from the earlier works of Edgar Allen Poe. A number of manifestoes were published in the 1880s, including ‘Le Symbolism’, by Jean Moréas in 1886.
This article is in the process of being revised. The target completion date is June 1, 2011.
Symbolism in art is separate but related to the literary movement, with its roots in the art of Romanticism of the early 19th Century. There were many factors which caused Symbolism to spread rapidly within intellectual circles and find adherents among artists throughout Europe. Foremost, a surge of Symbolist imagery at the end of the century represented a reaction to the effects of urbanization and materialism evident in the latter phases of the Industrial Revolution . Thematically, the art of Symbolism developed as a countercurrent to Impressionism and the various forms of Naturalism . It resurrected the mysticism and idealism frequently associated with German Romanticism . Symbolism emphasized the free access to the artist's inner world, allowing liberation from nature as a model and from the boundaries of artistic conventions.
Symbolism as an art movement maintained center stage for a little less than two decades at the end of the 19th Century, although considerable art produced before and after the period may be considered closely related. Many works of art included by some writers who cover the Symbolist era were actually produced in the middle of the century, or even before. Many artists whom historians have included when writing about Symbolism were in fact predecessors, if not mentors, to the movement itself.