Paul Signac

Paul Signac was a French neo-impressionist artist who, together with Georges Seurat, helped builds up the pointillist style. Signac also left several important works on the theory of art, among them From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism, published in 1899; a monograph devoted to Johan Barthold Jongkind, published in 1927; several introductions to the catalogs of art exhibitions; and many other still unpublished writings. Under Monet's influence Signac neglected the short brushstrokes of impressionism to experiment with systematically juxtaposed small dots of pure color, intended to combine and blend not on the canvas but in the viewer's eye, the defining feature of pointillism. Many of Signac's paintings are of the French coast. He loved to paint the water. As president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants from 1908 until his death, Signac encouraged younger artists by exhibiting the controversial works of the Fauves and the Cubists.