1863-1935 French Paul Signac Galleries Paul Victor Jules Signac was born in Paris on November 11, 1863. He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter. He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered. He also painted scenes of cities in France in his later years. In 1884 he met Claude Monet and Georges Seurat. He was struck by the systematic working methods of Seurat and by his theory of colours and became Seurat's faithful supporter. Under his influence he abandoned the short brushstrokes of impressionism to experiment with scientifically juxtaposed small dots of pure colour, 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 left the capital each summer, to stay in the south of France in the village of Collioure or at St. Tropez, where he bought a house and invited his friends. In March 1889, he visited Vincent van Gogh at Arles. The next year he made a short trip to Italy, seeing Genoa, Florence, and Naples. The Port of Saint-Tropez, oil on canvas, 1901Signac loved sailing and began to travel in 1892, sailing a small boat to almost all the ports of France, to Holland, and around the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople, basing his boat at St. Tropez, which he "discovered". From his various ports of call, Signac brought back vibrant, colourful watercolors, sketched rapidly from nature. From these sketches, he painted large studio canvases that are carefully worked out in small, mosaic-like squares of color, quite different from the tiny, variegated dots previously used by Seurat. Signac himself experimented with various media. As well as oil paintings and watercolours he made etchings, lithographs, and many pen-and-ink sketches composed of small, laborious dots. The neo-impressionists influenced the next generation: Signac inspired Henri Matisse and Andr?? Derain in particular, thus playing a decisive role in the evolution of Fauvism. As president of the Societe des Artistes Ind??pendants from 1908 until his death, Signac encouraged younger artists (he was the first to buy a painting by Matisse) by exhibiting the controversial works of the Fauves and the Cubists.  Related Paintings of Paul Signac :. | Woman by Lamplight | Railway junction near Bois Colombes | Montmartre-s Studio | the gas tanks at clichy | The peace of the dusk |
Related Artists:
Morbelli, Angelo
Italian, 1853-1919 Italian painter. He received his first lessons in drawing in Alessandria, and in 1867 he travelled on a local study grant to Milan, where he was based for the rest of his life. He enrolled at the Accademia di Brera and from 1867 to 1876 studied drawing and painting there under Raffaele Casnedi and Giuseppe Bertini, whose influence is seen in both the subject-matter and technique of his early works. These include perspectival views, anecdotal genre scenes and history paintings. In the Dying Goethe (1880; Alessandria, Pin. Civ.) the theatrical setting, enriched by a sophisticated execution and a well-modulated use of colour, derives from the teaching of Casnedi and Bertini, while the historic-romantic quality of this painting also recalls the style of Francesco Hayez. In the years that followed, Morbelli began to concentrate more on themes such as labour and the life of the poor, influenced perhaps by Realist painters of the 1880s such as Achille D'Orsi, Francesco Paolo Michetti and Teofilo Patini. Morbelli's Return to the Stable
James Shannonc
born in the United States and moved to England in 1878 where he trained at South Kensington 1862-1923
Hans Jorgen Hammer
(29 December 1815, Copenhagen - 28 Januar 1882, Rome) was a Danish artist who specialized in genre painting. Following an apprenticeship with J.G. Berg in Copenhagen, Hammer was admitted to the Danish Academy in 1828. In 1841, he became a student of Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg who remained a close friend. He was awarded the Academy's little silver medal in 1842 and the large silver medal the following year. Det sidste Læs, his entry for the Neuhausen Prize in 1845, was bought by Statens Museum for Kunst but it was not until 1837 that he was awarded the prize with Bønder forsamlede til Lystig­hed en Søndag Eftermiddag under aaben Himmel. Hammer was an industrious but rather serious and thoughtful artist. His avid approach to detail slowed down his work considerably. After the outbreak of war in 1848, he became a naval officer. With a stipendium from the Academy, he travelled to Italy in 1857 where he painted Torvet i Ariccia efter Solnedgang, considerably enhancing his reputation in Denmark. The painting was acquired by Statens Museum for Kunst in 1863. Other notable works are Axsamlersken (1866) and Postbudet med det længe ventede Brev (1877). After recovering from a serious illness, he travelled to Rome in 1881 but died there the following year