European

Paul Signac

France 1863-1935
Les Andelys 38.0811

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A skilled yachtsman, Signac favored coastal and harbor scenes. In this view along the Seine, Signac depicts the reflections of light upon land and water, thus creating a specific time and place. Although heavily influenced by Impressionism, Signac, along with Georges Seurat, Odilon Redon, and Henri-Edmond Cross, helped organize the first Independents Salon in 1884, the first public defection from the Impressionist movement. In the following years, both Signac and Seurat formed the theoretical basis for a new movement known as neo-impressionism, which was much more rigorous and scientific in its approach to the systematization of color. Like his good friend Seurat, Signac also adapted a pointillist technique in many of his paintings. In addition, Signac aided the physicist Charles Henry in the development of the color wheel. As evidenced in Les Andelys, Signac still utilized neo-impressionist techniques long after the movement was eclipsed, although his approach was much freer and more spontaneous than that of Seurat. Signac had a tremendous influence upon Henri Matisse, who visited his studio in 1904.

 

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