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A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Artist	Georges Seurat
Year	1884–1886
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	207.6 cm × 308 cm (81.7 in × 121.3 in)
Location	Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

There's only color and light.

George in Sunday in the Park with George

Divisionism was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically^[1] ^[2] . By requiring the viewer to combine the colors optically instead of physically mixing pigments, divisionists believed they were achieving the maximum luminosity scientifically possible. George Seurat founded the style around 1884 as chromoluminarism, drawing from his understanding of the scientific theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and Charles Blanc, among others. Divisionism developed along with a separate style, pointillism, which is defined specifically by the use of dots of paint and does not necessarily focus on the separation of colors.^[1]^[3] .

Theoretical foundations and development

Divisionism developed in the nineteenth century painting as artists found recent scientific theories of vision which encouraged a departure from the tenants of impressionism, which at that point had been well-developed. The scientific theories and rules of color contrast that would guide composition for divisionists placed the movement of Neo-impressionism in contrast with Impressionism, which is characterized by the use instinct and intuition<cite oxfort art online "Neo-impressionism">. Scientists whose theories of light or color had some impact on the development of divisionism include Charles Henry, Charles Blanc, Humbert de Superville, David Sutter, Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and Hermann von Helmholtz^[2].

Beginnings with Georges Seurat

Divisionism, along with the Neo-Impressionism movement as a whole, found its beginnings in Georges Seurat's masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Seurat was classically trained in the School of Beaux Arts, and, as such, his initial works reflected the Barbizon style. In 1883, Seurat and some of his colleagues began exploring ways to express as much light as possible on the canvas^[4] . By 1884, with the exhibition of his first major work, Bathing at Asnières, as well as croquetons of the island of La Grande Jatte, his style began taking form with an awareness of impressionism, but it was not until he finished La Grande Jatte in 1886 that he established his theory of chromoluminarism. In fact, La Grande Jatte was not initially painted in the divisionist style, but he reworked the painting in the winter of 1885-6, enhancing its optical properties in accordance with his interpretation of scientific theories of color and light^[5] .

Color theory

Charles Blanc's Grammaire des arts du dessin introduced Seurat to the theories of color and vision that would inspire chromoluminarism. Blanc's work, drawing from the theories of Michel-Eugène Chevreul and Eugène Delacroix, stated that optical mixing would produce more vibrant and pure colors than the traditional process of mixing pigments^[4]. Mixing pigments physically is a subtractive process, with red, yellow and blue being the primary colors. On the other hand, if colored light is mixed together, an additive mixture results, a process in which the primary colors are red, green and blue. The optical mixture which characterized divisionism -- the process of mixing color by juxtaposing pigments -- is different from either additive or subtractive mixture, although combining colors in optical mixture functions the same way as additive mixture, i.e. the primary colors are the same^[2]. In reality, Seurat's paintings did not actually achieve true optical mixing; for him, the theory was more useful in causing vibrations of color to the viewer, where contrasting colors placed near each other would intensify the relationship between the colors while preserving their singular separate identity^[4].

In divisionist color theory, artists interpreted the scientific literature through making light operate in one of the following contexts ^[4].

Local color: As the dominant element of the painting, local color refers to the true color of subjects, e.g. green grass or blue sky.
Direct sunlight: As appropriate, yellow-orange colors representing the sun’s action would be interspersed with the natural colors to emulate the effect of direct sunlight.
Shadow: If lighting is only indirect, various other colors, such as blues, reds and purples, can be used to simulate the darkness and shadows.
Reflected light: An object which is adjacent to another in a painting could cast reflected colors onto it.
Contrast: To take advantage of Chevreul’s theory of simultaneous contrast, contrasting colors might be placed in close proximity.

Paul Signac and other artists

Seurat’s theories intrigued many of his contemporaries, as other artists seeking a reaction against impressionism joined the neo-impressionist movement. Paul Signac, in particular, became one of the main proponents of divisionist theory, especially after Seurat’s untimely death in 1891. In fact, Signac’s book, D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme, published in 1899, coined the term divisionism and became widely recognized as the manifesto of Neo-Impressionism^[3].

In addition to Signac, other French artists, largely through associations in the Société des Artistes Indépendants, adopted his divisionist techniques, including Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Charles Angrand, Maximilien Luce, Henri-Edmond Cross and Hippolyte Petitjean^[5]. Additionally, through Paul Signac’s advocacy of divisionism, influence can be seen in some of the works of Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Robert Delaunay and Pablo Picasso^[6] ^[5].

In Italy, artists of the futurist movement who read Signac’s book, also took up divisionist techniques as part of a separate Italian Divisionism movement. This movement either characterized or influenced the work of various artists included Vitorio Grubicy, Angelo Morbelli, Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Gaetano Previati, Plino Nomelli, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà and Gino Severini^[1].

Criticism and controversy

Divisionism quickly received both negative and positive attention from art critics, who generally either embraced or condemned the incorporation of scientific theories in the Neo-Impressionist techniques. One critic, Joris-Karl Huysmans, spoke of Seurat’s paintings, saying “Strip his figures of the colored fleas that cover them, underneath there is nothing, no thought, no soul, nothing” ^[7]. Leaders of Impressionism, such as Monet and Renoir, refused to exhibit with Seurat, and even Camille Pissarro, who initially supported divisionism, spoke negatively of the technique^[7].

While most divisionists did not receive much critical approval for the majority of their careers, the critics who supported divisionists most consistently were Félix Fénéon, Arsène Alexandre and Antoine de la Rochefoucauld^[6]

Scientific misconceptions

Although divisionist artists strongly believed their style was founded in scientific principles, some people believe that there is evidence that divisionists misinterpreted some basic elements of optical theory^[8]. For example, one of these misconceptions can be seen in the general belief that the divisionist method of painting allowed for greater luminosity than previous techniques. Additive luminosities is only applicable in the case of colored light, not juxtaposed pigments; in reality, the luminosity of two pigments next to each other is just the average of their individual luminosities^[8]. Furthermore, it is not possible to create a color using optical mixture which could not also be created by physical mixture. Problems can also be found with the divisionist exclusion of darker colors and their interpretation of simultaneous contrast^[8].

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Tosini, Aurora Scotti. "Divisionism." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Apr. 2009 [1].
^ ^a ^b ^c Homer, William I. Seurat and the Science of Painting. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1964.
^ ^a ^b Ratliff, Floyd. Paul Signac and Color in Neo-Impressionism. New York: Rockefeller UP, 1992. ISBN: 0874700507.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sutter, Jean. The Neo Impressionists. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1970. ISBN: 0821202243.
^ ^a ^b ^c Smith, Paul. "Seurat, Georges." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Apr. 2009 [2].
^ ^a ^b Rapetti. Rodolphe. "Signac, Paul." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Apr. 2009 [3].
^ ^a ^b Rewald, John. Seurat: a biography. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990. ISBN: 0810938146.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lee, Alan. "Seurat and Science." Art History 10 (June 1987): 203-24.