Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism
Neo-Impressionism both built upon and challenged the methods of the Impressionist painters. The term was coined by the French art critic Félix Fénéon in August 1886 during the Salon des Indépendants' annual exhibition. Many of the canvases shown employed the divisionist technique, in which small, precise strokes of complementary colours are placed next to one another to construct an image that, when viewed from a distance, appears as a radiant, harmonious whole, Championed by Georges Seurat, divionism drew upon the contemporary scientific theories of colour advanced by Charles Blanc, Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood, who proposed that more vibrant hues could be achieved toi greater optical effect by way of certain juxtapositions of separate pigments.
For Paul Signac, divisionism was not just a scientifically informed aesthetic technique, but a "complex system of harmony." He developed his Neo-Impressionist practice across various sites, sailing to the ports of France, the Netherlands and the Mediterranean Sea to paint landscapes and scenes of urban life. While Signac aimed to create balanced, luminous paintings, his desire to achieve visual harmony echoes the spirit of social harmony for which he advocated throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Paul Signac and Neo-Impressionism
Neo-Impressionism both built upon and challenged the methods of the Impressionist painters. The term was coined by the French art critic Félix Fénéon in August 1886 during the Salon des Indépendants' annual exhibition. Many of the canvases shown employed the divisionist technique, in which small, precise strokes of complementary colours are placed next to one another to construct an image that, when viewed from a distance, appears as a radiant, harmonious whole, Championed by Georges Seurat, divionism drew upon the contemporary scientific theories of colour advanced by Charles Blanc, Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood, who proposed that more vibrant hues could be achieved toi greater optical effect by way of certain juxtapositions of separate pigments.
For Paul Signac, divisionism was not just a scientifically informed aesthetic technique, but a "complex system of harmony." He developed his Neo-Impressionist practice across various sites, sailing to the ports of France, the Netherlands and the Mediterranean Sea to paint landscapes and scenes of urban life. While Signac aimed to create balanced, luminous paintings, his desire to achieve visual harmony echoes the spirit of social harmony for which he advocated throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.