Paul Signac

PAUL SIGNAC 1863 – Paris – 1935 Paul Signac’s fame rests on his important contribution to Neo-Impressionism, not only as an artist, but as the most eminent publicist of the school. Born into a prosperous Parisian mercantile family, he was almost entirely self-taught. Apart from a short period spent in the ‘atelier libre’ of Jean-Baptiste Bin, he was guided by his study of Impressionism, particularly the paintings of Claude Monet and Armand Guillaumin. He met George Seurat in 1884, Camille and Lucien Pissarro in 1885 and Vincent van Gogh in 1886. A regular exhibitor with the ‘Indepéndants’, of which he was Vice President and later President from 1908 until his death, Signac promoted the vitality and high standards of this exhibition society. He also established contact with Théo van Rysselberghe and the Belgians who were forming a second group of Neo-Impressionists, and exhibited with Les XX in 1888 and 1890. By 1887, Signac had adopted a more theoretical approach to his work, which included a disciplined order of brushstroke, a scientific use of colour and a return to more formal pictorial compositions. He also shared the Anarchist views of his fellow artists, especially the Pissarros, Maximilien Luce and Henri-Edmond Cross. A born sailor and a lover of the sea, Signac moved his base to a villa at St Tropez in 1892. Here, he befriended Cross and together they hosted many mutual Parisian friends, including Louis Valtat, Henri Matisse, Henri Manguin and other members of Les Fauves. In 1895 Signac began to prepare D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme, published in 1899, which is considered one of the fundamental documents of Neo-Impressionism. He died in Paris in 1935.