see how the mark of "symbolism" between romanticism and modernism (gaugin, redon, munch)

what unites these different different marks is the emphasis on emotions, feelings, ideas, and subjectivity rather than realism. the work is personal and expresses the artist's own will to reveal truth. symbolists combined exotic, religious mysticism, the perverse, the erotic, and the decadent.

Gaugin goes for the exotic.

Symbolist subject matter is typically characterized by an interest in the occult, the morbid, the dream world, melancholy, evil, and death.

Redon goes for the bizarre.

Instead of the one-to-one, direct-relationship symbolism found in earlier forms of mainstream iconography, the Symbolist artists aimed more for nuance and suggestion in the personal, half-stated, and obscure references called for by their literary and musical counterparts.

symbolism provided a transition from Romanticism in the early part of the nineteenth century to modernism in the early part of the twentieth century.

Munch goes for the decadent,

In addition, the internationalism of Symbolism challenges the commonly held historical trajectory of modern art developed in France from Impressionism through Cubism.