Applying Science to Art “Some say they see poetry in my paintings, I see only science” — Seurat By the late 1870’s Georges Seurat had read Grammaire des arts du dessin (1867) by Charles Blanc in which Blanc describes the process he called ‘optical […]
Neo-Impressionism: A Definition The term Neo-impressionism describes an art movement, led by Georges Seurat until his tragically early death in 1891 and then by Paul Signac. It was a reaction against the spontaneity of Impressionism and espoused instead theoretical and scientific ideas about colour theory, […]
Vincent van Gogh: Self Portrait – 1887 Art Institute of Chicago Vincent van Gogh painted forty self portraits during the remarkably short period that he pursued his passion for painting. Twenty four were painted during his two year stay in […]
Henri Edmond Cross: The Beach at Cabasson – 1892 Art Institute of Chicago In 1891 Cross moved from Paris to the Côte d’Azur. He suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and hoped that the warmer climes of the south would ameliorate his […]
Théo van Rysselberghe: Big Clouds – 1893 Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA With a restricted palette made up mainly of blue-violet and yellow (a combination following Neo-Impressionist colour theory) van Rysselberghe constructs a stunningly beautiful and very simple composition with the […]
Albert Dubois-Pillet: The Banks of the Marne at Dawn – 1888 Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum Albert Dubois-Pillet developed his own theoretical underpinning for his divisionist paintings – a slightly different interpretation than most of his colleagues who did […]
Alphonse Allais Alphonse Allais was a poet, a humorist and the editor of the Chat Noir, a satirical magazine. He commissioned his friend Félix Fénéon to write a diary commenting on the avant-garde art scene for the Chat Noir. At […]
Seurat’s ‘Marines’ Seurat produced his first series of coastal paintings (or ‘marines’) in 1885, spending part of the summer at Grandcamp in Normandy. Then in 1886 he painted at Honfleur. In 1887 his summer was interrupted by a second short […]
Georges Seurat: The Channel at Gravelines – 1890 London, National Gallery In many of the small sketches he produced in preparation for Bathers at Asnières and A Sunday on the Island of the Grande Jatte, he necessarily reduced landscape to its essentials […]
Alfred William Finch: Haystacks – 1889 Museum of Ixelles, Brussels The repeated, almost abstract outlines, of haystacks and neighbouring farm buildings are the only relief from the oppressive flatness of the landscape. Finch’s restricted palette of grey-blue, light blue and […]