Divisionism or divisionism?
Title: For Eighty Cents! (Per ottanta centesimi!), 1895
Artist: Angelo Morbelli (Italian 1853-1919)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 69 x 124.5 cm
Museo Francesco Borgogna, Vercelli
Photo: Giacomo Gallarate
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Arcadia & Anarchy
Guggenheim Museum
April 27 - August 6, 2007
Title: Winter / (Inverno), 1898
Artist: Vittore Grubicy De Dragon (Italian 1581-1920)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 48 x 40 cm
Musei Civici Veneziani, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’ Pesaro, Venice
Photo: Claudio Franzini, Venezia
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Artists learn and build from one another and movements follow along, sometimes naturally, at other times with great effort. The Italian Divisionism movement was a
version of Neo-Impressionism or Pointillism, is a late nineteenth-century painting style premised on color theory and optics, in which dots or
dashes of usually complementary colors are juxtaposed to create luminous artworks. The viewer, standing
a normal distance away from the canvas has the illusion as the colors meld together rather than taking several steps towards the canvas and
realizing it was created via tiny dots of paint. The luminosity of such is greater than if the artist had actually mixed the paints together before applying them.
Georges Seurat and Camille Pissarro mastered this skill called pointillism. Pointillism is the method the artist uses to create the effect known as divisionism.
Title: The Sound of the Stream (Il suono del ruscello), 1902–03
Artist: Emilio Longoni (Italian 1859-1932)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 140 cm
Private collection
Photo: Vittorio Calore
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
The Guggenheim Museum in New York has an intriguing exhibition exploring Italian Divisions and the Neo-Impressionists.
Georges Seurat
Title: Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy
/(Port-en-Bessin, les grues et la percée), 1888
Artist: Georges Seurat (French 1859-1891)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65.1 x 80.9 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,
Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation
in memory of Marie N. Harriman 1972.9.21
Photo: © Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Considered the best of all the Pointillists Georges Seurat founded the French Neo-Impressionist movement. Seurat applied scientific techniques to his art while exploring
the use of color and effects of linear structures in his oeuvre. He worked with Paul Signac on his theories.
Paul Signac
Title: The Beacons at Saint-Briac, Opus 210
/(Saint-Briac. Les Balises, Opus 210), 1890
Artist: Paul Signac (French 1863-1935)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65.4 x 82 cm
Private collection
Photo: Archives Signac
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
In 1899, Signac wrote and published From Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism, which outlined the artists' discoveries. Together they learned to paint with 'points' of color bringing
pointillism to the artistic view. Signac in particular loathed the way colors could run or become, to use his term 'muddy mixtures', on paintings. Together Seurat and Signac solved this
conundrum with their sheer efforts. Many artists, like Henri Matisse, looked to their work and built on it.
Camille Pissarro
Title: Apple Picking at Éragny-sur-Epte
/ (La Cueillette des pommes, Éragny-sur-Epte), 1888
Artist: Camille Pissarro (French 1830-1903)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 61 x 74 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Camille Pissarro was one of the impressionists. Only for a very brief time did he experiment with pointillism in his works before finding it too scientific and he quickly abandoned the style.
Théo Van Rysselberghe
Title: Portrait of Émile Verhaeren in His Study
/ (Portrait d’Émile Verhaeren dans son cabinet), 1892
Artist: Théo Van Rysselberghe (Belgian 1862-1926)
Medium: Oil on Canvas,
Dimensions: 85 x 75 cm
Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Viewing Georges Seurat's
Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte at the 1866 Impressionists' exhibit had a profound effect on Théo Van Rysselberghe's work. He investigated the style and brought the technique back to his native Belgium, influencing several of his fellow artists. Théo Van Rysselberghe was a member of Les XX, a Belgian
artistic group. They invited Seurat to show the work that so influenced Théo Van Rysselberghe in Brussels. Unfortunately for Seurat it was highly criticized.
Henri-Edmond Cross
Title: Nocturne with Cypresses (Nocturne aux cyprès), 1896
Artist: Henri-Edmond Cross (French 1856-1910)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 65 x 92 cm
Association des Amis du Petit-Palais, Geneva
Photo: Studio Monique Bernaz, Geneva
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Henri-Edmond Cross at first followed the Impressionist school having met Claude Monet, abandoning his
original darker palette. Spending time in Signac's studio brought him to become a master of pointillism.
Title: Dance of the Hours (Danza delle ore), ca. 1899
Artist: Gaetano Previati (Italian 1852-1920)
Medium: Tempera on Canvas
Dimensions: 133.5 x 199 cm
Fondazione Cariplo-Iniziative Patrimoniali, S.p.A., Milan
Photo: Sandro R. Scarioni, Milan
Image Courtesy: Guggenheim Museum, New York
Approximately forty paintings including
works by the Italian Divisionism masters Giovanni
Segantini, Angelo Morbelli, and Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, alongside
Neo-Impressionists artworks of Georges
Seurat, Paul Signac, and Camille Pissarro and others are included in the show.
Divisionism/Neo-Impressionism Arcadia and Anarchy
Guggenheim Museum:
April 27 - August 6, 2007
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