The short existence of the Impressionist group (1876-88) accomplishes a revolution in the history of art, providing a technical starting point for the so-called Postimpressionist artists Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh, and and freeing all subsequent Western painting from traditional techniques and approaches to subject matter.

Although the influence of Neo-Impressionism is waning by the 1890s, it is important in the early stylistic and technical development of several artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Henri deToulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, and Paul Bonnard.

The Symbolist movement in Western painting, of which the latter two are prominent ypung members, is fading by the end of 1897, leaving the way clear for the ascendancy of the Nabis and the Fauves of the succeeding era.

This thread explores Western art from 1886 through 1887 and its relationship to the main arc of Post-Impressionism, which includes the Synthetist movement and, to some extent, the Symbolist movement.

Within are many links to images and text concerning the works of various artists.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, from which the author has drawn some material for this thread, is a comprehensive secondary source on the lives and works of many of the period's important artists.