Neo-impressionism

Neo-Impressionism is the name given to the Post-Impressionist work of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and their followers, who painted by applying small adjacent touches or dots of pure colour so that, seen from a distance, these hues would mix optically in the viewer's eye, reproducing the vibration of light. This technique is known as Pointillism or Divisionism. The movement arose in the mid-1880s in France and drew on contemporary scientific theories of colour and visual perception, notably the writings of Michel Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood. Unlike spontaneous Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism sought a systematic, almost methodical approach, and its compositions are marked by a balanced, harmonious structure and a sense of frozen monumentality. The programmatic work is considered to be Seurat's large canvas 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte' (1884–1886). Signac became the chief theorist and populariser of the method, setting out its principles in his book 'From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism'. The movement influenced Fauvism and the further development of abstract colour, and its ideas spread through many European schools.