Signac, Paul (redirected from Signac)

Signac, Paul (pōl sēnyäk`), 1863–1935, French neoimpressionist painter. First influenced by Monet, he was later associated with Seurat in developing the divisionist technique. Interested in the science of color, he painted with a greater intensity and with broader strokes than Seurat. In such vigorous, colorful works as Port of St. Tropez (1916; Brooklyn Mus., New York City) Signac broke through the confines of neoimpressionist theory. He wrote a treatise, D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme (1889), long considered the foremost work on the school.

Bibliography

See study by his granddaughter, Françoise Cachin (tr. 1973).

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Signac, Paul

(born Nov. 11, 1863, Paris, Fr.—died Aug. 15, 1935, Paris) French painter. At 18 he gave up architecture to pursue painting in the Impressionist manner. In 1884 he became a founder of the Salon des Indépendants. With Georges Seurat he developed an exact mathematical system of applying dots of colour, which they called Pointillism (see Neo-Impressionism). He traveled extensively along the European coast painting landscapes and seascapes; in his later years he painted street scenes of Paris and other cities. He was a master of watercolour, in which he achieved great brilliance of colour and a free, spontaneous style. His work had a great influence on Henri Matisse.