Neo-impressionism

Neo-Impressionism is a term for a style of painting in the middle of the 1880s originated in France with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac main initiators. Neo-Impressionism will be made ​​out of a painting technique in which no regions or areas on the canvas, but dots ( Pointillism ) or possibly dashes ( divisionism ).Those dots or dashes were not mixed on the palette, but placed in different combinations in pure colors together.

Neo-Impressionism developed in parallel with other post-impressionist movements, such as the synthetic ism, with its emphasis on large, often well-defined patches. All these movements can be considered as a continuing development of impressionism .

Content

 * 1 Colour Theory
 * 2 History
 * 2.1 Early Period
 * 2.2 Les Vingt
 * 2.3 Clouding
 * 2.4 Restart and boot to modernism
 * 3 See also
 * 4 References and sources
 * 5 Note

Color Theory
Based on previous color theories by Eugène Chevreul , James Clerk Maxwell and Ogden Rood developed color theories, Seurat formulated its own color theory, which was based on three primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and three secondary colors (orange, purple, green), which were after mixing of primary colors. In addition, he distinguished complementary pairs that were formed by a primary color, the secondary color a which was caused by mixing of the two other primary colors. These colors were applied undiluted by the Post-Impressionists on the canvas, carefully grouped according to meticulously defined rules, side by side, polka dots or dashes. The idea was that the unmixed on the canvas making particularly complementary colors and pigments led to a greater intensity of colors. Color separation was the starting point. Beware the retina eventually had held an optical mixing.

Théo van Rysselberghe :Portrait of Irma Sèthe, 1894

[Starting period edit ]
Starting date for Neo-Impressionism is called 1884, when his Seurat Bathers at Asnieres exhibited at the Salon des Independants . In this painting the principles of Neo-Impressionism were already clearly visible. During this exhibition Seurat also met Signac, who impressed showed the painting and Seurat new method, which they would then jointly develop. A year later joined the famous impressionist Camille Pissarro at them himself and made ​​sure to include that Seurat are A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jattewas exhibiting at the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 large. [1]

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte still stands as a prime example of Neo-Impressionism. The confrontation with this cloth, in a period when Impressionism its peak ferrying, called critics sharply divided reactions, but it would mean a revolution for many artists. Immediately after the exhibition closed, other painters joined the new movement, such as Henri-Edmond Cross , Maximilien Luce , Albert Dubois-Pillet and Hippolyte Petitjean . The critic Félix Fénéon acted as a spokesman for the new movement and also launched its new name: Neo-Impressionism. This name also immediately gave the connectedness of the current weather with impressionism, not only because of the great attention to lighting effects, but also because of the focus on the "capture" of the fleeting moment.

Les Vingt [ edit ]
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was exhibited in 1887 at the fourth exhibition of avant-garde Belgian artists' Les Vingt in Brussels, where it made ​​an international breakthrough of Neo-Impressionism. Also in Brussels at the exhibition present painters converted a number directly to the new movement, including the Belgians Willy Finch , Anna Boch , Georges Lemmen and later Théo van Rysselberghe, which reached a very personal expression. The Dutchman Jan Toorop painted sometime in the style of Neo-Impressionism, which got more followers in the Netherlands Henk Bremmer , Henri Daalhoff , Jan Aarts , Jan Vijlbrief and Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig .

[Clouding edit ]
Neo-Impressionism experienced between 1886 and 1888, all in all a flying start. In 1888, however, already Signac Seurat wrote that he was worried about the increasing number of followers of the new style, many of whom were less gifted and moreover knew the theoretical principles and insufficiently applied. This would result in his eyes to an undesirable clouding of the original doctrine. For many painters turned the spot no more than a decorative element.

Another problem late 1880s was emerging was the limitation that the application of the scientific color theory entailed. Often resulted in cool, uniform paintings which lacked its own 'signature' of the painter. By several painters were looking for a more expressive form of expression, as guaranteed in particular in the working divisionistisch Vincent van Gogh strong would prevail.

Paul Signac : Capo di Noli, 1898.

When Seurat died in 1891, appeared his original rigid doctrine therefore short-lived much longer. His death seemed then to be an accelerated end of Neo-Impressionism, where Camille Pissarro wrote to his son Lucien still they knew that Seurat "undeniably something had brought about that later very important for the arts will turn out."

[Restart and boot to modernism edit ]
In the early nineties, after the death of Seurat, polite post-impressionism indeed a backlash, but Signac remained an advocate tirelessly to make headway. He moved to Saint-Tropez and especially by his hand experienced the flow at the end of the nineteenth century a revival. An important aspect was the publication of his manifesto D'Eugène Delacroix au Neo-Impressionism (1899), which meant especially a restart for divisionism. Strict color theory and systematic method of Seurat were replaced by a more liberal treatment of the subject, the paint button got more personal, more expressive character and color gained eloquence. There was more room for discretion and the approach was less analytical. Good example is Signac sunlit harbor scene Capo di Noli 1898. The dots are replaced by mosaic-like color blocks, making the shapes are more abstracted.Several painters were inspired by Signac's new approach, including Jean Metzinger, the young Robert Delaunay , Kees van Dongen (who visited Signac in Saint-Tropez) andWassily Kandinsky . The dot evolved in their work eventually to an independent element within the painting, would contribute more emphatically to the division of forms, which pointillism eventually also came to be at the forefront of the modernism of the twentieth century.