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As its own name means, this technique consists of painting with little points of pure color. At the eighth exhibition of Impressionism in 1886, a first alternative for crisis of languages was given. Shift from Impressionism to Pointillism was due to theorical and scientifical progress. Félix Feneon talked of "Scientifical Impressionism" and Chevreul composed his literary work: Book on Complementarity of Colors.
There are many investigators for these matters: Charles Henry discovered the effect of colors and lines on spectator in his Treatise on Scientifical Esthetic.
Now artists see Nature with their mind, not with their eyes. They have to overcome traditional visual conception in order to get a more intelectual one. This is the first step for later abstract art.
- Image get a new entity.
- Works begin from "plein air", as Impressionism did, but end in studio.
- Artists recuperate the difference between finished work and sketch.
- Figures in space take rigidity and solemnity, losing their spontaneity. Scholars have pointed that rigidity can remember pictures from first quattrocento, as Piero della Francesca's ones.
- There is a clear tendency to sketching forms and simplifying volumes.
- We get the illusion that light comes from figures. Impressionism did the opposite, since light was projected on them.
- There are clear connections with Symbolism.
*Other painters are: Pissarro, Henry Edmond Cross, Regoyos, although we cannot see pure pointillism in their works. They can paint with commas or parallel touchs of brush, on a previous unified surface of color.
Each author should be seen as an independent entity, since he is influenced by one or several different ways.
Written by:
Beatriz Aragonés Escobar.
Licenciada in History of Art