Neo-impressionism: what it is and what are its characteristics

At times, the story seems meticulously calculated. And it is that George Seurat exhibited his Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte, considered the great work of Neo-Impressionism, in the last of the Impressionist exhibitions. impressionism he was touched to death, and a new era of artistic expression was beginning.

The year was 1886, and Seurat's painting caused a real sensation. Not because of its theme; the public was more than accustomed, thanks to Monet and company, to urban and country landscapes flooded with light. But its colossal dimensions (207.6 x 308 cm) and, above all, the innovative technique, established a turning point between this great work by Seurat and previous impressionist production.

A new style was inaugurated, neo-impressionism. But what was it? What were its characteristics? Why was it a revolution in impressionist technique? In this article we are going to find out.

What is neo-impressionism?

The term "neo-impressionism" as well as "post-impressionism" is a somewhat vague reference to the artistic production that developed in Europe after the rise of impressionism. In the 1880s, the Impressionists were experiencing a crisis that, in reality, meant their swan song. After the dispersal of the group, new artists appeared who gave a twist to what was proposed by impressionism a decade earlier.

It was the art critic Félix Féneon (1861-1944), very close to impressionist circles, who coined the term. It all happened in 1886; precisely, with regard to the last exhibition of the movement, in which we have commented that George Seurat (1859-1891) participated with his Sunday afternoon.

Féneon had written a volume on Impressionist painting and was quite familiar with the group's technique and creative process. For this reason, when he found himself before Seurat's canvas, he was amazed at the technical innovation that he represented with respect to his predecessors.

What was this innovation that had placed Seurat at the forefront of Parisian cultural life? Actually, your Sunday afternoon It had not been the first work of a clearly “neo-impressionist” nature that the artist had shown to the public. His painting Bathers at Asnières, which shows another perspective on the island of La Grande Jatte, had been presented to the official Salon in 1884 and was immediately rejected. The work was exhibited in the famous Salón de los Independientes, where artists not accepted by “official” art exhibited. It was there that Paul Signac (1863-1935), the most fervent follower of Seurat and his faithful friend, discovered it.

• Related article: "What are the 7 Fine Arts? A summary of its characteristics"

A twist on impressionism

Both in Bathers in Asnières and in Sunday afternoon it is clearly appreciated what it was that Féneon had noticed and had decided to name this new style “neo-impressionism”. This innovation was the technique that Seurat had employed. Because, while the Impressionists made quick and loose brushstrokes and, above all, mixed the colors on the canvas, the tonalities of Seurat's paintings remained "intact" on the cloth.

Already at the beginning of the 19th century, the chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889) had launched his "law of contrast Simultaneous Colors”, in which he argued, among other things, that two colors appear much more different if they are they juxtaposed. What Chevreul was saying was that the human eye had the ability to "interpret" colors.

Starting from this theory, and also based on the investigations on the color of Ogden N. Rood (1831-1902), Seurat developed a pictorial technique based on pure color points applied uniformly on the canvas.. The colors were simply juxtaposed on the canvas; at the proper distance, the viewer's retina mixed them by means of an optical illusion. This factor makes Seurat and his followers much more “analytical” artists than his predecessors. Neo-impressionist canvases lack the spontaneity that impressionist creations enjoy, since they take their positivism to the extreme. In neo-impressionism everything is carefully studied, and the optical and scientific theories that acquired so much resonance at the time are used.

• You may be interested in: "History of Art: what is it and what does this discipline study?"

George Seurat, the great name of neo-impressionism

At Seurat, this meticulousness goes to the extreme. The painter was extremely meticulous when it came to composing his paintings, as evidenced by the 28 drawings and 28 oil sketches that he made for his Sunday afternoon, without counting the three canvases that he previously executed to frame the scene. During the long months that he devoted to his masterpiece, Seurat changed the composition and the characters several times. Paul Signac, his follower and great friend, commented that when he visited the painter in his studio, the canvas seemed too big for the smallness of the workplace. Some scholars point to this as the reason why the figures of Sunday afternoon They look a bit out of proportion.

The motif of the inaugural work of Neo-Impressionism was commonplace; some people (mostly elegant and distinguished) enjoy a Sunday afternoon on the Grande Jatte, a small island in the Seine. The technique of uniform dots (later called divisionism or pointillism) ensures that, at a suitable distance, a harmonious combination of colors can be seen. However, if we get closer, we will be able to verify that, indeed, Seurat applies juxtaposed points of pure color, without mixing.

The empire of Neo-Impressionism lasted until the untimely death of Seurat, who died of meningitis at the age of 31. His friend Signac was in charge of developing his theories and spreading the style. Especially important for the trajectory of Pointillism was his work From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism, published in 1899 and which laid the technical foundations of the movement.

Influence of neo-impressionism on the artists of the turn of the century

Signac's works faithfully follow the precepts of his friend, although in some of them we already observe a kind of pre-fauvism. We cannot forget the enormous influence that Seurat's work had on artists fauves, who picked up the idea of ​​"pure color" and began to apply colors directly to the fabric without any prior mixing. Thus, the Fauves Henri Matisse (1869-1954) or André Dérain (1880-1954) received a great apprenticeship from the pictorial heritage that Seurat had left behind.

Paul Signac evolved in his final stage towards a highly decorative work, inspired by Japanese posters and prints. A clear example of this is his famous Portrait of Félix Féneon on enamel against a rhythmic background of measures and angles, tones and colors, where the art critic who had given the style its name appears as a conjurer framed in a background of undulating and almost dreamlike colors.

The paintings will never again reflect the real color of the world. At the end of the century, artists such as Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) or Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), the great names of whom It has been called post-impressionism, they capture tonalities as an expressive vehicle, a phenomenon that the aforementioned Fauves will take to the limit in 1905.

The other neo-impressionist artists

Although Seurat and Signac are the best-known names in Neo-Impressionism (not surprisingly, they were the ones who developed the technique) there are other artists who moved by the precepts of this new style, such as Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910). Cross's real name was Delacroix, but he changed his last name to distance himself from his romantic namesake and to prevent the public from confusing them. His immersion in pointillism seuratian It was late, since his first Pointillist works date from 1891, precisely the year of Seurat's death.

On the other hand, neo-impressionism made a deep impression in Belgium and the Netherlands. Seurat was called by the group of Les Vingt (The Twenty), based in Brussels, to exhibit jointly. Previously, the group of Belgian artists had shown interest in impressionists such as Pissarro, Monet and Berthe Morissot, who were also invited to exhibit with them. Some of the Belgian and Dutch names of Neo-Impressionism are the painters A. W. Finch (1854-1930) and Henry van Velde (1863-1957).