Before we fully move into the 20th century and it's vast array of modern art, let me back this art-history lesson up a bit. Allow me to focus on a school of art that wasn't exactly a school, not considered a movement but nonetheless changed painting forever and inspired much of modern art. It probably has even inspired you as an art viewer!

The art at hand is post-impressionism, these artists were bored with the subject matter of impressionism and fed up with it's lack of structure and limitations. Think Van Gogh, Gaugin, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. They are household names we usually loosely equate with impressionism, and while they did adhere to the style's thick brush strokes, wild use of color and thickly layered paint they were truly of a new breed. They are "post" not only because these artists came after the impressionists but also because their styles were remarkably different.

As I gestured, post-impressionism was not a cohesive movement. This style of art was termed by an art critic who was putting together an exhibit with some of these artists, it was a convenient tag that honestly described the artists as younger than the impressionists.

Vincent van Gogh is the artist from this movement that perhaps had the farthest reaching grasp on the art-world. While van Gogh is known of one of art history's greatest painters, he was not well-known or respected in those early post-impressionism days. Van Gogh's emotional and striking paintings are the poster of post-impressionism, a perfection of this loosely gathered genre. Perhaps his contriubution to post-impressionism was done so well because of his lack of formal training, van Gogh painted with everything but the academic skill most artists are taught. His emotional, tumultuous style of painting seemed to mirror his tragic and tumultuous life which have made van Gogh an enigma, a romanticized and mysterious obsession in the art world.

Paul Gaugin was another artist tied into impressionism. Whereas van Gogh created unruly paintings from still-lifes and scenery, Gaugin painted almost entirely from memory and imagination. His style earned him the title as one of the foremost important respected post-impressionism painters. Gaugin and van Gogh were friends with an intense bond, the two wrote letters and created paintings for each other.

How can you go wrong with a beautifully painted van Gogh reproduction in your home? While most people hang waxy prints of Toulouse, van Gogh and Cezanne, you can own a masterfully crafted oil painting of high quality, a mirror image of a beloved work of art. The master post-impressionist works are some of the most expensive in the world, and aside from owning originals--what more could you ask for!