Minneapolis Institute of Art

Impression of a Garden

Johan Thorn Prikker

Date

c. 1900–1903

Medium

Pastel and gouache

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Johan Thorn Prikker was a multifaceted Dutch artist, a painter, muralist, designer of posters and furniture, maker of stained glass and mosaics, and so on. In the early years of the 20th century, he became interested in the possibilties of Divisionist art, making images using short, discrete strokes of strong, unmixed colors. He used this method to make pastel landscapes, with some--such as this one--veering toward abstraction. Thorn Prikker pushed toward a level of abstraction that exceeded more famous Neo-Impressionists, such as Suerat, Signac, Pissarro, and Cross. Even Piet Mondiraan did not draw his abstract trees until several years later. Shortly after making this drawing and a group of others in the same vein, Thorn Prikker left The Netherlands for Germany, where he built a career as a prominent makers of mosaics and stained glass. Apparently his production of Divisionist pastels, such as the present one, helped him develop the sensibility that served him so well later on. Europe

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