|
Signac, Paul (1863-1935)
Paul Signac was a French neo-impressionist painter, one of the originators of the technique known as pointillism or divisionism. Upon Seurat's death, he succeded him as leader of the Neo-Impressionists.
Le Canal St Martin, 1833
Signac was born in Paris on November 11, 1863. He originally planned to study architecture, but upon getting to know the Impressionist school, he decided to become an artist, his prosperous shopkeeping family giving him financial independence. He painted in Paris with his friend Armand Guillaumin, an artist on the fringe of Impressionism.
In 1884 he met Monet and Georges Seurat. He was struck by the systematic working methods of Seurat, and his theory of colors and became Seurat's faithful supporter. Under his influence he abandoned the short brushstrokes of impressionism to experiment with scientifically juxtaposed small dots of pure color, intended to combine and blend not on the canvas but in the viewer's eye, the defining feature of pointillism. |
