*** Welcome to piglix ***

Divisionism

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884.jpg
Artist Georges Seurat
Year 1884–86
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 207.6 cm × 308 cm (81.7 in × 121.3 in)
Location Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Portrait of Félix Fénéon
Signac - Portrait de Félix Fénéon.jpg
Artist Paul Signac
Year 1890
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 73.5 cm × 92.5 cm (28.9 in × 36.4 in)
Location The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Self-Portrait with Felt Hat
Self portrait with Felt Hat.jpg
Artist Vincent van Gogh
Year 1888
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 44 cm × 37.5 cm (17.3 in × 14.8 in)
Location Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
La danse, Bacchante
Jean Metzinger, 1906, La dance (Bacchante), oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm DSC05359...jpg
Artist Jean Metzinger
Year 1906
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 73 cm × 54 cm (28.7 in × 21.2 in)
Location Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands
L'homme à la tulipe (Portrait de Jean Metzinger)
Robert Delaunay L'homme à la tulipe (Portrait de Jean Metzinger) 1906.jpg
Artist Robert Delaunay
Year 1906
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 72.4 cm × 48.5 cm (28.5 in × 19.1 in)

Divisionism (also called chromoluminarism) was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically.

By requiring the viewer to combine the colors optically instead of physically mixing pigments, Divisionists believed they were achieving the maximum luminosity scientifically possible. Georges Seurat founded the style around 1884 as chromoluminarism, drawing from his understanding of the scientific theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and Charles Blanc, among others. Divisionism developed along with another style, Pointillism, which is defined specifically by the use of dots of paint and does not necessarily focus on the separation of colors.

Divisionism developed in nineteenth-century painting as artists discovered scientific theories of vision that encouraged a departure from the tenets of Impressionism, which at that point had been well-developed. The scientific theories and rules of color contrast that would guide composition for Divisionists placed the movement of Neo-Impressionism in contrast with Impressionism, which is characterized by the use of instinct and intuition. Scientists or artists whose theories of light or color had some impact on the development of Divisionism include Charles Henry, Charles Blanc, David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville, David Sutter, Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and Hermann von Helmholtz.

Divisionism, along with the Neo-Impressionism movement as a whole, found its beginnings in Georges Seurat's masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Seurat had received classical training at the École des Beaux-Arts, and, as such, his initial works reflected the Barbizon style. In 1883, Seurat and some of his colleagues began exploring ways to express as much light as possible on the canvas By 1884, with the exhibition of his first major work, Bathing at Asnières, as well as croquetons of the island of La Grande Jatte, his style began taking form with an awareness of Impressionism, but it was not until he finished La Grande Jatte in 1886 that he established his theory of chromoluminarism. In fact, La Grande Jatte was not initially painted in the Divisionist style, but he reworked the painting in the winter of 1885-6, enhancing its optical properties in accordance with his interpretation of scientific theories of color and light


...
Wikipedia

...