The Yellow Christ

painting by Gauguin

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

"The Yellow Christ" is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin, created in 1889. It is a prime example of Gauguin's Synthetist style, characterized by bold, flat areas of color, strong outlines, and simplified forms, moving away from the realism of Impressionism.

The painting depicts a scene inspired by religious imagery, featuring a wooden crucifix with a yellow Christ figure. Gauguin incorporated elements of medieval religious art, reflecting his interest in "primitive" and spiritual expression. He used vivid, arbitrary colors and distorted perspectives to convey emotion and imagination rather than strict visual accuracy. This work exemplifies Gauguin's desire to extract and synthesize elements from nature, prioritizing emotional and symbolic content over direct representation.

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Paul Gauguin
Early maturity
…his compositions, as seen in The Yellow Christ (1889). While such works built upon the lessons of color and brushstroke he learned from French Impressionism, they rejected the lessons of perspectival space that had been developed in Western art since the Renaissance. He expressed his distaste for the corruption he…
Read More
…his compositions, as seen in The Yellow Christ (1889). While such works built upon the lessons of color and brushstroke he learned from French Impressionism, they rejected the lessons of perspectival space that had been developed in Western art since the Renaissance. He expressed his distaste for the corruption he…
Read More