Neo-Impressionism

A late-19th-century art movement that applied theories of color perception through systematic brushwork, especially Divisionism and Pointillism.

Divisionism: A painting technique that separates colors into distinct strokes or patches rather than blending them on the palette. Neo-Impressionists used separated colors to build luminous, optically mixed surfaces.
Georges Seurat: A French painter who developed the systematic style associated with Neo-Impressionism. His research and paintings established the movement’s defining approach.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte: Georges Seurat’s large painting of Parisians relaxing on an island in the Seine. Its carefully ordered dots and monumental scale became an emblem of Neo-Impressionism.
Fauvism: An early twentieth-century movement known for vivid color and simplified forms. Fauvist artists inherited Neo-Impressionist color experiments but used color more freely.
Broken color: A painting approach that leaves distinct strokes of color visible rather than blending them smoothly. Unlike Neo-Impressionist method, it need not follow a systematic theory of color separation.
Pointillism: A painting technique that constructs images from small, discrete dots of color. It is the best-known form of the movement’s systematic, separated brushwork.
Paul Signac: A French painter and writer who advanced and promoted Neo-Impressionism after Seurat. His practice and writings helped turn a new technique into a sustained movement.
Bathers at Asnières: Georges Seurat’s painting of working-class people relaxing beside the Seine. This early major work shows Seurat developing a disciplined approach before his mature pointillism.
Henri Matisse: A French painter who helped lead Fauvism and later became a major modern artist. His early use of Divisionist technique shows the movement’s direct influence on later painting.
Alla prima: A painting method completed in a single session with wet paint applied directly over wet paint. Its rapid, continuous handling contrasts with Neo-Impressionist planning and discrete marks.

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