Divisionism

Divisionism is the technique at the heart of Neo-Impressionism, developed by Georges Seurat in the mid-1880s and also called chromoluminarism. Drawing on contemporary optical science, Seurat and his followers abandoned palette mixing: instead they laid small, separate strokes of unmixed, pure color side by side so that the blend happens optically in the viewer's eye. Seurat demonstrated the method in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1886), and Paul Signac theorized it in From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism (1899). The technique spread to Belgium and Italy - Giovanni Segantini and Henri-Edmond Cross among its most dedicated practitioners - and its liberation of color from description fed directly into Fauvism and early abstraction.

Defining characteristics

• Small, separated strokes or dots of unmixed, pure color
• Optical mixing: colors blend in the eye of the viewer, not on the palette
• Scientific use of simultaneous contrast and complementary colors
• Luminous, even light over flattened, carefully ordered compositions
• A methodical, almost mathematical build-up of the painted surface

Key figures

• Georges Seurat (1859-1891) — Inventor of the technique, which he called chromoluminarism
• Paul Signac (1863-1935) — Seurat's ally who codified the method in print and carried it across Europe
• Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910) — Turned divisionist dots into the radiant color that influenced the Fauves
• Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) — Leading Italian divisionist, painting Alpine light in separated strokes

Example works

• A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte — Georges Seurat (1886)
• Bathers at Asnières — Georges Seurat (1884)
• Capo di Noli — Paul Signac (1898)

Sources

• Divisionism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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