Symbolist painters were part of a 19th century movement in which art became infused with mysticism, and by the closely allied Symbolist movement in literature. It was a continuation of some mystical tendencies in the Romantic tradition, which included such artists as Caspar David Friedrich, Fernand Khnoppf and John Henry Fuseli and it was even more closely alligned with the self-consciously dark and private movement of Decadence.
The Symbolist painters mined mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul, seeking evocative paintings that brought to mind a static world of silence. The symbols used in Symbolism are not the familiar emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art, the Symbolist painters influenced the contemporary Art Nouveau movement and Les Nabis. In their exploration of dreamlike subjects they are also precursors of the Surrealists, some of whom might be best explained as Symbolism with the content of Freud.
The leading Symbolists included:
External link
The Symbolist Gallery at ArtMagick: http://www.artmagick.com/gallery/symbolism.aspx
