Paul Signac
Paul Signac actually wanted to be a writer, but after seeing the Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, he decided to start painting. Signac did not attend an art college, he learned the trade by spending many hours sketching and experimenting. When he struck up a friendship with Georges Seurat, his life changed.
The two artists were no longer satisfied with the Impressionists’ use of color and fluent brushstrokes. Together they developed a new, structured technique, in which the colors were mixed only with white and were applied directly to the canvas in small dots. In this way, the colors merged together only in the eye of the observer, thus creating a vibrating effect of shimmering light. Due to the characteristic dots (or points), the style was called Pointillism.
Signac painted mostly seascapes and harbor views, such as this view of Collioure, a French town on the Mediterranean Sea. The pale colors reproduced the effect of the Mediterranean sun, which according to the artist "fades the shadows, tempers the local colours and makes the clear sky thinner."
We present today's painting thanks to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. :)
P.S. If you love beautiful marine views, be sure to check out our bestselling postcard set Sea, Ships & Beaches; you will find some other masterpieces by Signac in it! :)
P.P.S. Pointillism combined the scientific knowledge of human vision and stunning light effects taken from the Impressionists. Here you can discover the amazing pointillist landscapes!