Signac, Paul

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.

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Signac, Paul 

Born Nov. 11, 1863, in Paris; died there Aug. 15, 1935. French painter and engraver.

Signac studied in Paris at the Académie Privée de Bing. At first he was influenced by impressionism. In 1886, under the influence of Seurat and Pissarro, he turned to neo-impression-ism, consequently becoming the movement’s major theorist and one of its leading painters. In a number of his works, Signac adhered strictly to Seurat’s doctrine of dividing colors into their component parts, yet the flatness and ornamental character of his works anticipated art nouveau (Portrait of Félix Fénéon, 1890, private collection, New York). In his other works, primarily seascapes, Signac used various tonal combinations to capture a particular emotion (View of the Port of Marseilles, 1911, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris).

In 1884, Signac helped organize the Salon des Indépendants. An active public figure, he supported the principles of the French Communist Party. Signac visited the USSR in the 1930’s.

WORKS

Ot Ezh. Delakrua k neoimpressionizmu. Moscow, 1913. (Translated from French.)