***November 2007*** |
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Paul Signac
November 11, 1863 - August 15 1935
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Paul Signac was born Paul Victor Jules Signac
in Paris in 1863 into a family of a well-to-do master harness-makers.
Showing a flair for drawing at a young age he decided to become
an architect, but after a year of studying he abandoned this
and at the ripe age of eighteen decided to pursue a career
as a painter. In 1883 the young artist attended the studio
of the painter Siegfried Bing, where he began to experiment
with Impressionist techniques. 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 and apprentice. 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, which was the defining feature of pointillism. |
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Being both energetic, sociable and completely obsessed with painting,
Signac actively participated in the Society des Artistes Indépendants,
a juryless exhibiting society he helped to found in 1884. Soon Camille
Pissarro and his elder son, Lucien, joined the group. Signac subsequently
formed many new friendships, helped organize exhibitions, and wrote
articles of art criticism for local art magazines and newspapers. |
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Signac’s artistic output at this time consisted mainly
of seascapes, landscapes and town scenes and he traveled widely
across the France to find inspiration. From Le Havre to Marseilles,
Paris to Antibes he painted and experimented with a variety of mediums.
Along with oil paintings and watercolors he made etchings, lithographs,
and many pen-and-ink sketches composed of small, laborious dots.
In March 1889, he visited Vincent van Gogh at Arles where the two
artists shared their passion for painting by working together in
the countryside for days on end.
Signac also inspired Henri Matisse and André Derain in particular,
thus playing a decisive role in the evolution of the movement of
Fauvism. |
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After the death of Georges Seurat in 1891,
Signac took over the leadership of the Neo-Impressionist Group.
On November 7, 1892 Signac married Berthe Roblès, a
relative of Pissarro. In 1893 they bought a house at Saint-Tropez,
where the painter had a vast studio constructed which was
soon to become a resort and favourite painting spot of modern
artists. In 1908 he became the president of the Société
des Artistes Indépendants a position he kept 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.
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In September 1913, Signac left his wife and rented a house
at Antibes, where he settled with his lover Jeanne Selmersheim-Desgrange,
who gave birth to their daughter Ginette on October 2, 1913.
Signac and his first wife Berthe remained good friends for
the rest of his life. He left his first studio and house to
her in good will.
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Signac continued painting and presiding over the Société
des Artistes Indépendants while his reputation as an artists
of great stature grew. On April 6, 1927, Signac adopted Ginette,
his previously illegitimate daughter and at the age of seventy-two,
died on August 15, 1935 in Paris from septicemia (bacteria in the
blood). His body was cremated and, three days later was buried at
the Père-Lachaise cemetery.
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