Seurat: The Circus

Georges Seurat: The Circus – 1891 Paris, Musée d’Orsay This picture was exhibited in an unfinished state at the seventh Salon des Indépendants which opened on 20 March 1891. Nine days later he was dead. The dominant red–blue–yellow spectrum of […]

Signac: In the Time of Harmony

Paul Signac: In the Time of Harmony (The Golden Age is not in the Past, it is in the Future) – 1895 Mairie de Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis The presence of the Fig Tree and the Umbrella Pine tell us that we […]

Emile Verhaeren

Emile Verhaeren Emile Verhaeren was a Belgian Symbolist poet, playwright and critic who trained as a lawyer but soon abandoned that path to dedicate his life to literature, criticism and poetry. From 1880 he wrote for l’Art Moderne a journal publishing […]

Les XX and Neo-Impressionism in Belgium

Les XX and Neo-Impressionism in Belgium The exhibition society know as Les XX (Les Vingt) was established in Brussels in October 1883 by 11 founding members who then invited a further nine to take part in their first exhibition in […]

Maximilien Luce: Morning, Interior

Maximilien Luce: Morning, Interior – 1890 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York A young man has just dressed and sits on his flimsy bed in order to put his left boot on. His room is sparsely furnished – all we […]

Signac: Palais des Papes, Avignon

Paul Signac: Palais des Papes, Avignon – 1909 Musée d’Orsay, Paris Signac’s style developed over time from the closely structured pointillism of the late 1880s and early 1890s, to a freer divisionist technique employing larger brushstrokes to achieve a shimmering, […]

Seurat: Parade de cirque (Circus Sideshow)

Georges Seurat: Parade de cirque (Circus Sideshow) – 1887-1888 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Parade de Cirque was a taster designed to whet the appetite of passers by and persuade them to part with their entrance fee in […]

van Gogh: The Sower

Vincent van Gogh: The Sower – 1888 Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo Van Gogh produced several versions of The Sower, a motif derived from his admiration for the work of the Barbizon painter Jean-François Millet who presents his subject with gritty realism […]

Camille Pissarro: Apple Harvest

Camille Pissarro: Apple Harvest – 1888 Dallas Museum of Art, USA On a sunny autumn day four labourers are engaged in bringing in the apple harvest – their attention focused on a lone tree set on a hill. As the […]

Signac: The Dining Room

Paul Signac: The Dining Room – 1887 Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands Exhibited in 1887, The Dining Room depicts a scene from bourgeois life. At a large round table covered in a white tablecloth (which takes up more than a third […]