| |  | Paul Signac |  |
| "The golden age has not passed; it lies in the future." *** Signac, Paul (1863-1935) was a French painter, one of the principal Neo-Impressionist ones. He worked with Georges Seurat in creating Pointillism (or Divisionism). | |
Signac published From Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism (1899), explaining their theories. Signac's prosperous shopkeeping family gave him financial independence. Unlike Seurat, he had virtually no formal training; he taught himself to paint by studying the works of Claude Monet and others. After he and Seurat met in 1884, they developed their technique of painting with dots (or 'points' in French) of color, which led to the name 'Pointillism'. As Signac explained, they used the pure impressionist palette but applied it in dots that were to be blended by the viewer's eye (Optical Mix). What Signac called 'muddy mixtures' were to be banished from painting and replaced by luminous, intense colors. Many of Signac's works are landscapes, inspired by the bright sunlight of southern France. He also painted some figure compositions. The Neo-Impressionists influenced the next generation; Signac inspired Henri Matisse in particular. As president of the annual Salon des Independants (1908-34), Signac encouraged younger artists by exhibiting the controversial works of the Fauves and the Cubists. |
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|  | | "The Dining Room" (1884-86) Oil on canvas, 89 x 115 cm - 35 x 45 1/4 in. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands. | | |
|  |  | "Comblat le Chateau. Le Pré" (1886) Oil on canvas, 63 x 77 cm - 24.8 x 30.3 in. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA. | | |
|  | | "Sunday" (1888-90) Oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm - 59.1 x 59.1 in. Private collection. | | |
|  | | "Women at the Well" (1892) Oil on canvas, 195 x 131 cm - 76.8 x 51.6 in. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France. | | |
|  | | "The Papal Palace, Avignon" (1900) Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 92.5 cm - 28.9 x 36.4 in. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France. | | |
|  | | "Grand Canal (Venice)" (1905) Oil on canvas, 73.5 × 92.1 cm - 28.9 × 36.3 in. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA. | | |
|  | | "The Jetty at Cassis, Opus 198" (1889) Oil on canvas, 46.4 × 65.1 cm - 18.3 × 25.6 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, N.Y., USA. | | |
|  | | "Capo di Noli" (1898) Oil on canvas, 93.5 × 75 cm - 36.8 × 29.5 in. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, Germany. |
| Text source: 'Webmuseum' (www.ibiblio.org/wm). | |
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