(Widewalls Editorial): Pointillism Art Movement And Its Most Inspiring Artists

Pointillism can be described relatively simply – it’s an art movement named after a technique in which small dots of color are applied to canvas in order to form an image. Today, the term dotted art is also in colloquial use, and it describes the application of small dots of different color painted on canvas. As a historical art movement, Pointillism has a very particular implication, but nowadays it’s usually described as a special technique that has been used by a number of different artists, all of them creating in various contexts when it comes to art movements. The birth of Pointillism dates back to the Belle Epoque in Paris and the time of the Impressionist art. It is generally related to the French painter Georges Seurat, whose masterpiece Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte is widely praised as the most famous of the Pointillism paintings.

Paul Signac (1863-1935):L’Hirondelle Steamer on the Seine (1901)

The Emergence of Pointillism

Georges Seurat and Paul Signac’s practice and paintings led to the emergence of Pointillism, usually associated with the year 1886. Both artists used this style earlier, but it was art critics who coined the term in order to describe their extraordinary innovative approach to canvas and paint. In the very beginning (the late 19th Century), the critique had a rather mocking attitude towards the technique used by Seurat and Signac – they were criticizing their practice, believing that the term “Pointillism” would have a pejorative connotation. However, history proved these sharp-penned pedantists wrong, while Pointillism entered the books as one of the most progressive art movements of the era. Introducing a completely new perception in the field of color studies, Pointillism has had a huge influence on various art movements, spanning from the end of the 19th century and the avant-garde throughout the 20th.

Maximilien Luce (1858-1941): Morning, Interior (1890)

Definition of the Style and Technique

Pointillism describes a technique in which hundreds of small dots or dashes of pure color are applied to the canvas, or another surface, in order to create maximum luminosity. This manner of creating art relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to blend the color spots into a range of tones. This technique is in sharp contrast to the traditional methods of blending pigments on a palette. It’s more similar to the four-color CMYK printing process used by some color printers (Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow, and Key (black)). If the composition is viewed from a certain distance, (supposedly three times the diagonal measurement) the dots of color give a richer and more subtle effect than can be achieved by conventional techniques. The subject-matter is not as important as dots in Pointillist compositions. It’s all about the dots and the image they create. Finally, the majority of Pointillism paintings have been done in oil paints. There are exceptions to the rule but they are scarcescarcely to be found.

Hippolyte Petitjean (1854-1929): Le Pont Neuf
(c. 1914; watercolour and gouache on paper; 250 x 190 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

What is the Difference between Dotted Art and Pointillism?

Terms dotted art and pointillism refer to the same thing. The only difference is that Pointillism is used more among art historians, art lovers and collectors, while the dotted art among a wider public. Dotted art is popular among non-professional artists and many other artistic practices use “dotted painting”. For example, Aboriginal art is, among many other things, known for its dotted paintings. Apart from these contextualizing differences, there isn’t much more to be said about differences between dotted art and Pointillism.

Georges Seurat (1859-1891): Bathers at Asnières
(Une baignade à Asnières; 1884; oil on canvas; 201 x301 cm / 79 x 118 in; National Gallery, London)

Pointillism and Divisionism

Pointillism is sometimes wrongly associated with Divisionism (sometimes called chromoluminarism). Divisionists also used a similar manner of patterns to form images, but the final result of their practice was different. Both techniques emerged at the same time, and both of them were considered to be part of Post-Impressionism.
Divisionism emerged thanks to the scientific theories and rules of color. For example, the famous Charles Blanc’s color wheel influenced the practice of Divisionists. However, while divisionism was preoccupied with colors, and their divisions, Pointillism was founded on possibilities of creating pattern art, shapes and perspectives out of dots. When pointillist piece of art was created, not much attention was given to the separation of colors. It could be argued that the confusion arose due to the fact that the same artists were „responsible” for the emergence of Pointillism as well as Divisionism (Seurat, Signac, and even van Gogh). Maybe the biggest difference between the two styles may be noticed when inspecting the „final product”. Divisionists used larger cube-like brushstrokes, while Pointillist compositions are obviously characterized by multicolor dots.

Henri Edmond Cross (1856-1910): Regatta in Venice (1903-1904)

Pointillism and Other Art Movements

The biggest names who used the pointillist way of painting were in part Post Impressionist artsts. Post-Impressionism emerged in the mid-1880s, and by many is regarded as the first true avant-garde movement in painting. One of the main aims of the movement was to incorporate the latest explanation of optic and color perceptions. By using dots or larger cube-like brushstrokes, Post-Impressionists actually practiced the latest discoveries of the theory of colors and perception. However, the Pointillist approach isn’t exclusively related to Post-Impressionism. It also had a big impact on other styles as well, including Cubism, and even Pop Art.
Finally, today there are many of contemporary artists who still use this extraordinary technique in their art. Observing the current trends in digital creativity, one can certainly pose a question: Is there not a connection between Pointillism and pixels in computer art? Isn’t the pixel art a sort of dotted art as well? The logic is the same, however, the style and context are completely different.

Pointillism in Music

The term “Pointillism” also refers to a music genre that emerged at the end of the 1940s. It’s also sometimes called Punctualism and point music. Stockhausen defines this type of music as music that consists of separately formed particles — however, complexly these may be composed, as opposed to linear, or group-formed, or mass-formed music. This term firstly emerged in the early 1920s. The French word pointillisme, evoking Seurat’s painting technique, had been applied to music in this opposite sense of a „mosaic-like method of construction, an infinite accumulation of small and insignificant inorganic details„, with reference to Arnold Schoenberg’s operas, Erwartung and Die glückliche Hand. But, the most notable representatives of this music genre were creating in the 1940s and 1950s. They are Anton Webern, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karel Goeyvaerts, and many others. Of course, there aren’t direct relations between Pointillism in visual arts and Pointillism in music. However, they are based on the same contemplative principles.

Georges Seurat (1859-1891): The Seine and la Grande Jatte – Springtime
(1888; Collection of Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium; image via Wikipedia.org)

The Most Influential Pointillism Artists

Beside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who conceived Pointillism as an art technique and conducted the group of artists who adopted that painting style, later on, many other artists were influenced by Seurat and Signac, claiming to be Pointillists themselves. Mostly, those were French, Italian and Belgian artists, as they were the ones who contributed the most to the development of Expressionism in Europe. Alongside them, some Dutch artists contributed to the acknowledgment of the technique. Vincent van Gogh was one of them, as he occasionally painted using what was known as the Pointillism technique. But, it wouldn’t have happened, if his brother Theo van Gogh didn’t introduce him to Camille Pissarro in the first place. Side by side with Pissaro, there were artists like Albert Dubois-Pillet, Henri-Edmond Cross, Charles Angrand, and many others, who took the leading roles in the Pointillism development throughout the second half of the 19th century.

Paul Signac (1863-1935): Grand Canal (Venice)
(image via Wikimedia.org)

Camille Pissarro – Depicting the Ordinary Life

Camille Pissarro was one of the artists that stood out within the use of Pointillism as a painting technique. But how did he get to that point? By the 1880s, Pissarro had already begun to explore new themes and methods in order to break out of the ordinary painting at the time. So, he turned his back to Impressionism and went all the way back to his early topics – portraying a common man, with his paintings depicting people at home, or at work, but in rather realistic settings. It was the time when Pissarro met Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who already had used small patches of colors to create the illusion of blended colors and shading when viewed from a distance. Pissarro embraced the new technique referred to as Pointillism and spent years from 1885 to 1888 practicing and implementing it in his work. Pissarro eventually became the only artist who went from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism. But later on, he turned away from Post-Impressionism, claiming that its system was too artificial.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903): Children on a Farm (1887; Collection of George Signac, Paris; image via Wikipedia.org)

Albert Dubois-Pillet – Military Officer and a Self-Taught Painter

Albert Dubois was a French military officer who fought in the Franco-Prussian war. But, there was another part of is personality, which was in direct opposition to militarism. He wanted to be a painter, so he taught the techniques for himself, and eventually closely aligned with Post-Impressionist as an amateur painter. He was certainly talented, and various Salons accepted his work for exhibitions during 1877. Dubois was a friend of Georges Seurat, and he was the one who founded the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884 and also helped to write its statute. In the meantime, Albert Dubois became one of the first artists to adopt Pointillism. But, his military service conflicted with his artistic expressions, so he had to hide. In order to camouflage his artistic practice, he started signing his art pieces with his last name, Dubois, with the addition of his mother’s maiden name – Pillet. So, he remained known as Albert Dubois-Pillet in the artistic circles.

Albert Dubois-Pillet (1846-1890): Little Circus Camp
(oil on canvas; 273.05 x 409.57 mm / 10.75 x 16.12 in; The Phillips Collection, Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.)

Charles Angrand – Important Member of Parisian Avant-Garde

Charles Angrand was a French artist who gained acknowledgment for his paintings and drawings, later deemed Post-Impressionistic. He was an important member of the Parisian avant-garde art scene in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Influenced by Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, Charles Angrand also interacted with artists like Seurat and Signac through the mid-1880s, which led his style towards Post-Impressionism. Although, Angrand’s implementation of Pointillist techniques differed from others’. His palette was more muted than bright contrast colors of Seurat and Signac. Angrand mostly used dots of various colors to enhance shadows, but he was avoiding the violent coloration found in many other pointillism paintings. He painted in monochrome conté crayon technique, which could be seen in his self-portraits, for instance. “His drawings are masterpieces. It would be impossible to imagine a better use of white and black. These are the most beautiful drawings, poems of light, of fine composition and execution”, Paul Signac noted for Angrand’s artworks.

 

Vincent van Gogh – Finding and Expressing Light

Even Vincent van Gogh painted occasionally in a Pointillist style. Lucien Pissarro, son of Camille Pissarro, believed it was due to his father’s direct influence on Vincent van Gogh and his art. Reportedly, it was his brother and art dealer Theo van Gogh who first came to an idea to connect Vincent with Camille Pissaro. It happened in 1884 when Pissarro accepted to take in the celebrated painter as a lodger in his home. Lucien Pissarro wrote that his father was impressed by Van Gogh’s work and had foreseen the power of this artist, who was 23 years younger than himself. Camille’s son also noted that his father did explain different ways of finding and expressing light and color to their young protege, which he later used in his paintings. Largely influenced by Pointillism at the time, Pissarro also transferred some of that technique to van Gogh, who later occasionally painted some of his paintings using the dotted art.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890): Undergrowth
(1887; oil on canvas; 32 x 46 cm / 12.5 x 18.1 in; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; image via Wikiart.org )

Henri-Edmond Cross – A Divisionism Portraiture

One of the most influential artists throughout the second phase of Post-Impressionism was a French painter and printmaker Henri-Edmond Cross. He is most acclaimed as a master of Post-Impressionism, with an instrumental influence in the development of Fauvism. In 1884, Cross was a co-founder of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, which was the time when he met many like-minded artists, including Georges Seurat, Albert Dubois-Pillet, and Charles Angrand. Despite the close relationship with them, Henri-Edmond Cross didn’t adopt their style for many years. It was in 1891 when he finally began painting in the manner of the group and the same year he exhibited his first art piece made with Pointillist technique. It was a divisionist portrait of Madame Hector France, who became Cross’s wife in 1893. „The picture is softly charged with a granular, atmospheric glow”, Robert Rosenblum wrote about this Cross’s painting. In the years to come, the work of Henri-Edmond Cross had a special impact on the artistic development of the artists like Henri Matisse and many others.

Henri-Edmond Cross: Evening Air
(L’air du soir; c. 1893; oil on canvas; 116 x 164 cm / 45.6 x 64.5 in; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France; image via Wga.hu)

Théo van Rysselberghe – Exploring the Modern Art Scene

Théo van Rysselberghe was the founder of Les Vingt (The Twenty), a Belgian group of modern artists, which originally consisted of 20 progressive painters, sculptors, and writers based in Brussels, who joined together from 1883 to 1893 to exhibit innovative art. He was a frequent visitor to galleries where he explored the modern art scene. There he was exposed to work of Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh. His famous portrait of Alice Sèthe from 1888 was painted with the direct influence of Pointillism’s, and eventually, it became the turning point in his career. In that period he made many Neo-Impressionistic portraits, such as the portrait of his wife Maria and their daughter Elisabeth, but also many landscapes and seascapes. In 1897, Théo van Rysselberghe moved to Paris, where he had worked along with Camille Pissarro, Maximilien Luce, Van Dongen, and many others. He also contributed to the anarchist magazine Temps Nouveaux. During the late-1890s he slowly started abandoning the use of dots in his works and began using some wider brush strokes, which announced the end of his Pointillism period.

Théo Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926): Femme et Enfant – The Portrait of his wife Maria and daughter Elisabeth (Bild vu senger Fra a sengem Kand; image via Wikipedia.org)

Giuseppe Pelizza da Volpedo – Leading Italian Pointillist

Giuseppe Pelizza da Volpedo was the leading Italian Pointillist. He used a divisionist technique to juxtapose small dots of paint according to specific color theory. His most famous work is Il Quarto Stato (The Fourth Estate) from 1901, which become a symbol for progressive and socialist causes in Italy at the time. This painting was shown during the opening credits of Bernardo Bertolucci’s film 1900 and is currently exhibited at the Museo del Novecento in Milan, Italy.

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907): ll Quarto Stato, detail
(1898-1901; oil on canvas; 293 x 545 cm / 115.3 x 214.5 in; Museo del Novecento, Milan; image via Wikimedia.org)