Paul SIGNAC (1863-1935) - Paris - "Le Pont des Arts with tugboats" - Etching

Paul SIGNAC (1863-1935)
Tugs under Pont des Arts in Paris. 1927
Etching with etching.
Signed in the plate lower left.
Good condition, all margins.
Dimensions of the board: 12.7 x 19cm.
Frame dimensions: 30 x 37 cm.
This original engraving is part of the artist's many views of Paris.
Signac works with Seurat and Pissarro, with whom he will form the group of “so-called scientific impressionists”. He very quickly converted to the practice of scientific division of tone. The empirical technique of pointillism consists in dividing the tones into very small patches of pure color, pressed against each other, so that the eye of the beholder, by recomposing them, perceives a unity of tone. Signac and the neo-impressionists believe that this division of tones first ensures all the benefits of coloring: the optical mixture of purely pure pigments makes it possible to find all the shades of the prism and all their tones. The separation of the various elements (local color, lighting color and their reactions) is also ensured, as well as the balance of these elements and their proportion, according to the laws of contrast, degradation and irridiation. Finally, the painter will have to choose a touch proportioned to the size of the painting6. In 1885, his interest in "the science of color" led him to go to the Gobelins where he attended experiments on the reflection of white light.
During the 1890s after a trip to Italy and a stay in Cassis then in Saint-Briac in Brittany, he became the leader of neà-impressionism: an enthusiastic apostle of the movement, he engaged in a real campaign of proselytism for him. gain new followers. In 1892, he discovered Saint-Tropez, where he bought the Villa La Hune five years later, and organized Seurat's posthumous exhibitions in Brussels and Paris. In 1894, he tried his hand at large decorative painting, especially for a huge painting - since 1938, owned by the town hall of Montreuil -, Au temps d´harmonie. Nevertheless, while it is true that Signac has good personal relations with the Nabis, notably Bonnard, he does not share their aesthetic views at all, and does not adhere to the religious credo of Maurice Denis. He wants to be an impartial personality, above the schools, friend of each other, flexible and friendly, and becomes president of the Society of Independent Artists in 1908.
The neo-impressionist movement was called into question with the death of Seurat in 1891, Signac therefore tried to legitimize it with his work De Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, published in 1899. The publication of the Journal de Delacroix between 1883 and 1895 also had a lot of influenced Signac since he decided to make his own journal in 1894, which he opened with a reflection on the relations between Delacroix and neo-impressionism. Signac therefore legitimizes the neo-impressionists by placing them as heirs to Delacroix, whose talent is not in doubt, described as the father of colorists.
The impressionists are thus the intermediaries between Delacroix and the neo-impressionists for the progress of art which consists for Signac in making a work as colorful and as luminous as possible. From Delacroix to the Neo-Impressionists is a manifesto considered at first as a reliable source since Signac had been one of Seurat's closest friends, before being questioned in particular by William Homer According to him, Signac's work is oversimplified, and he underlines the fact that between the beginning of Neo-Impressionism (1886), and the date of publication, (1899), his ideas would have evolved and would no longer be faithful to Seurat. Signac would also have liked to take on the role of co-founder of the movement when he would have been relegated to the background during Seurat's lifetime. Indeed, in his work, Signac paradoxically minimizes the importance of scientific theories, but this is in response to criticism of being too dogmatic. He insists that science is only a tool at the service of the artist and that it in no way limits his creativity. These techniques are easy, and he says can be learned as early as elementary school.

Ref: HOKQE47WYQ