Artist in Focus - Paul Signac

One of the principal French neo-impressionist painters of his time, Paul Signac helped develop the Pointillist style working with Georges Seurat, with whom he had a close friendship. Pointillism, which became the basis of Neo-Impressionism, was an almost scientific system of applying the dots, instead of the somewhat intuitive application of the earlier masters. 

He was initially influenced by Monet and Impressionism and in 1884 he helped found the Salon des Indépendants with Seurat, Charles Angrand and Henri Edmond Cross. Here he encouraged younger artists and he was also the first to buy a painting by Henri Matisse.

Many of Signac's paintings are of the French coast as he loved to paint the water, he sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered. In his later years he began writing, Signac produced much critical writing and was the author of From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism and Jongkind. The former book is an exposition of pointillism, while the latter is an insightful treatise on watercolour painting.