To offer you even more information about the museum and Vincent van Gogh, and serve you better, we use cookies. By clicking ‘Accept’, you are giving us permission to use these cookies. Cookies help us to ensure that the website works properly. We also analyse how the website is used, so that we can make any necessary improvements. Advertisements can also be displayed tailored to your interests. And finally, we use cookies to display forms, Google Maps and other embedded content.
Find out more about our cookies.

Discover the Parisian print world

mysticism

Towards the end of the 19th century, Symbolist artists rejected a modern western culture dominated by reason and belief in progress.

They set off in search of more spiritual worlds, which they visualised in their prints. These artists took refuge inside themselves, in the secret places of dream and imagination.

They also looked outside, however, towards ‘primitive’ regions like Brittany and to earlier eras, such as the Middle Ages, when the connection between human beings and mystery was still intact.

View this artwork
View this artwork
  • Paul Gauguin’s quest for mysticism

    Paul Gauguin literally travelled the world in search of the lost paradise. His print Manau Tupapau expresses the fears of a Tahitian girl through a highly personal mix of mystical symbolism that is hard to decipher. Like most Symbolists, he resisted attempts to decipher his work, which he felt would simply dissipate the mystery.

  • View this artwork
  • Maurice Denis: ‘He who mystics’

    In 1899 the trendy satirical paper Père Ubu bestowed nicknames on numerous modern artists. Maurice Denis was dubbed ‘he who mystics’ (‘Celui qui mystique’).

    It’s not a bad soubriquet for this artist, who managed to combine his Catholic faith, his poetic nature and his artistic ambitions in modern, mystical prints.

    He used arabesques, colours and patterns to offer his own, distinctive interpretation of iconic figures like Mary and Christ, who represented the purity and serenity with which he wanted to touch the souls of his viewers directly.

  • View this artwork

Further reading

Alfred Jarry, Almanach du Père Ubu, Parijs, 1899

Pierre-Louis Mathieu, La génération symboliste, Genève, 1990

Henri Dorra (red.), Symbolist Art Theories. A Critical Anthology, Berkeley, 1994

240 prints in 'mysticism'

  • p2487S2006
  • p2495aS2008
  • p2489kS2006
  • p2489lS2006
  • p2489mS2006
  • p1617V2000
  • p2495a-mS2008
  • p2495bS2008
  • p2495hS2008
  • p2495jS2008
  • p2495lS2008
  • p2495eS2008
  • p2495kS2008
  • p2495mS2008
  • p2471S2005
  • p0568M1990
  • p0569M1990
  • p0570M1990
  • p0571M1990
  • p0572M1990
  • p0019V1962
  • p2750N2012
  • p2751-005N2012
  • p2751-007N2012
  • p2751-002N2012
  • p2751-004N2012
  • p2751-003N2012
  • p2751-006N2012
  • p2751-008N2012
  • p2752N2012
  • p2753N2012
  • p2755-001N2012
  • p2755-002N2012
  • p2755-003N2012
  • p2755-004N2012
  • p2755-005N2012
  • p2755-006N2012
  • p2755-007N2012
  • p2755-008N2012
  • p2755-009N2012
  • p0915N1996
  • p0917N1996
  • p0918N1996
  • p0919N1996
  • p0920N1996
  • p0291V1982
  • p0309M1974
  • p0484M1984
  • p0511M1986
  • p0529M1990
  • p0546M1990
  • p0547M1990
  • p0548M1990
  • p0549M1990
  • p0550M1990
  • p0551M1990
  • p0552M1990
  • p0553M1990
  • p0554M1990
  • p0555M1990
  • p0556M1990
  • p0557M1990
  • p0558M1990
  • p0559M1990
  • p0560M1990
  • p0561M1990
  • p0562M1990
  • p0563M1990
  • p0564M1990
  • p0565M1990
  • p0566M1990
  • p0567M1990
  • p0875N1996
  • p0876N1996
  • p0877N1996
  • p0878N1996
  • p0879N1996
  • p0880N1996
  • p0881N1996
  • p0882N1996
  • p0883N1996
  • p0884N1996
  • p0885N1996
  • p0886N1996
  • p0887N1996
  • p0889N1996
  • p0891N1996
  • p0894N1996
  • p0895N1996
  • p0896N1996
  • p0897N1996
  • p0900N1996
  • p0901N1996
  • p0904N1996
  • p0905N1996
  • p0906N1996
  • p0907N1996
  • p0908N1996
  • p2437a-kV2004
  • p2438V2004
  • p2437aV2004
  • p2437bV2004
  • p2437cV2004
  • p2437dV2004
  • p2437eV2004
  • p2437fV2004
  • p2437iV2004
  • p2437jV2004
  • p2437kV2004
  • p2447S2004
  • p2448S2004
  • p2359S2003
  • p1791V2000
  • p1789V2000
  • p1634V2000
  • p1637V2000
  • p1642V2000
  • p1643V2000
  • p1690V2000
  • p1698V2000
  • p1699V2000
  • p1703V2000
  • p1706V2000
  • p1180V2000
  • p1182V2000
  • p1183V2000
  • p1184V2000
  • p1186V2000
  • p1190V2000
  • p1191V2000
  • p1270V2000
  • p1271V2000
  • p1273V2000
  • p1286V2000
  • p1288V2000
  • p1289V2000
  • p1290V2000
  • p1291V2000
  • p1293V2000
  • p1294V2000
  • p1338V2000
  • p1341V2000
  • p1342V2000
  • p1349V2000
  • p1350V2000
  • p1352V2000
  • p1370V2000
  • p1371V2000
  • p1389V2000
  • p1403V2000
  • p1404V2000
  • p1406V2000
  • p1421V2000
  • p1422V2000
  • p1423V2000
  • p1424V2000
  • p1425V2000
  • p1426V2000
  • p1428V2000
  • p1429V2000
  • p1431V2000
  • p1615V2000
  • p1618V2000
  • p1619V2000
  • p1076V2000
  • p1009V2000
  • p1018V2000
  • p1019V2000
  • p1020V2000
  • p1023V2000
  • p1033V2000
  • p1042V2000
  • p1069V2000
  • p1077V2000
  • p1078V2000
  • p1102V2000
  • p1114V2000
  • p1115V2000
  • p1116V2000
  • p1118V2000
  • p1119V2000
  • p1127V2000
  • p1140V2000
  • p1141V2000
  • p1142V2000
  • p1143V2000
  • p1144V2000
  • p1145V2000
  • p1146V2000
  • p1147V2000
  • p1148V2000
  • p2549S2010
  • p1991-001S2002
  • p1991-006S2002
  • p1991-007S2002
  • p2590S2011
  • p2613S2011
  • p2614S2011
  • p2615S2011
  • p2623S2011v
  • p2654S2012
  • p2660S2012
  • p2661S2012
  • p2662S2012
  • p2665S2012
  • p2666S2012
  • p2667S2012
  • p2668S2012
  • p2669S2012
  • p2670S2012
  • d1174S2012
  • pa0020
  • p2697S2012
  • p2698S2012
  • p2708-002S2013
  • p2708-003S2013
  • p2708-004S2013
  • p2708-005S2013
  • p2708-006S2013
  • p2708-007S2013
  • p2708-008S2013
  • p2708-009S2013
  • p2708-010S2013
  • p2708-011S2013
  • p2738S2013
  • p2739S2013
  • p2766-003S2015
  • p2768-005S2015
  • p2786S2016
  • p2787S2016
  • p2788S2016
  • p2789S2016
  • p2970S2019
  • p2971S2019
  • p2972S2019
  • p2973S2019

Search the French print collection

Discover more

Continue your journey into the Parisian print world of the fin de siècle. Discover more printmakers, stories and themes. The connections are endless.

Explore