Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century movement in poetry and art that rejected the realism and naturalism of the time and tried to suggest ideas and states of mind through symbols and evocative images. The date shown is that of the publication of Charles Baudelaire's collection Les Fleurs du mal, which inspired the younger poets, and the movement was named in 1886 by Jean Moreas in a manifesto. The leading Symbolist poets in France were Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stephane Mallarme. In painting it included Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Arnold Bocklin, and its mysterious dreamlike subjects later influenced Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt and the Surrealists.
Before and after
- from 19 October 1856 to 12 January 1964Sultanate of Zanzibar
- 18 December 1856Birth of Joseph John Thomson
- 28 December 1856Birth of Woodrow Wilson
- from 1857 to 1947Indian independence movement
- 1857Rise of Symbolism
- 1857Founding of Kuala Lumpur
- 1857Publication of Madame Bovary
- 1857Rise of spiritism
- 24 January 1857Founding of University of Calcutta
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1863Origins of Baháʼí Faith
- 26 November 1865Publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- 1871The Internationale
- from 1886 to 1905Rise of Post-impressionism
- 31 March 1889Construction of Eiffel Tower
- from 6 April 1896 to 15 April 18961896 Summer Olympics
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.