Editing Paul Signac (section)

== Biography ==

Paul-Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on 11 November 1863.{{sfn|Ferretti-Bocquillon|2001|p=297}} His parents wanted him to study [[architecture]] but, as he said, his preference was to draw [[the Seine]]. He was particularly affected by an 1880 exhibition of [[Claude Monet]]'s work. Signac began boating.{{sfn|Ferretti-Bocquillon|2001|p=298}}

[[File:Signac - Portrait de Félix Fénéon.jpg|thumb|alt=painting|''[[Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890|Portrait of Félix Fénéon]]'', by Paul Signac in 1890, oil on canvas, 73.5 × 92.5 cm (28.9 × 36.4 in), [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York]]
[[File:Seurat Paul Signac.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=painting|''Portrait of Paul Signac'' by [[Georges Seurat]] in 1890, [[conté]] crayon, private collection]]
[[File:Paul Signac, 1893, Femme à l'ombrelle, oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm, Musée d'Orsay.jpg|thumb|alt=painting|Portrait of his wife, Berthe, painted at Saint-Tropez by Paul Signac, 1893, ''Femme à l'ombrelle'' (''Woman with Umbrella''), oil on canvas, 81 x 65&nbsp;cm, [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris]]
In 1884 he met [[Claude Monet]] and [[Georges Seurat]]. He was struck by the systematic working methods of Seurat and by his theory of colors and he became Seurat's faithful supporter, friend, and heir with his description of [[Neo-Impressionism]] and [[Divisionism]] method.<ref>Ruhberg Kark, Art of the 20th Century Benedikt Taschen Verlag GMBH 1998 {{ISBN|3-8228-4089-0}}</ref> Under Seurat's influence he abandoned the short brushstrokes of [[Impressionism]] to experiment with scientifically-juxtaposed small dots of pure color, intended to combine and blend not on the canvas, but in the viewer's eye, the defining feature of [[Pointillism]].

The Mediterranean coast is a major theme across Signac's paintings.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brodskaya |first1=Nathalia |title=Post-Impressionism |date=2014 |language=en |isbn=978-1-78310-389-8 |publisher=Parkstone International |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ksqjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 |page=76 |access-date=26 September 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926002026/https://books.google.com/books?id=ksqjAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 |url-status=live }}</ref> He left the capital each summer, to stay in the south of France in the village of Collioure or at [[St. Tropez]], where he bought a house and invited his friends. He envisioned the south of France as the perfect location for a future anarchist utopia.<ref> Anne Dymond (2003) A Politicized Pastoral: Signac and the Cultural Geography of Mediterranean France, The Art Bulletin, 85:2, 353-370, DOI: 10.1080/00043079.2003.10787076 .</ref>

Signac, [[Albert Dubois-Pillet]], [[Odilon Redon]], and Seurat were among the founders of the [[Société des Artistes Indépendants]]. The association began in Paris 29 July 1884 with the organization of massive exhibitions, embracing as their motto, "Neither jury nor awards" (''Sans jury ni récompense''). "The purpose of Société des Artistes Indépendants—based on the principle of abolishing admission jury—is to allow the artists to present their works to public judgement with complete freedom".<ref name="Indépendants">{{cite web|url=http://www.artistes-independants.fr/index.php?page=historique&chlangue=us|title=Société des Artistes Indépendants|website=www.artistes-independants.fr|access-date=17 August 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044004/http://www.artistes-independants.fr/index.php?page=historique&chlangue=us|url-status=live}}</ref> For the following three decades their annual exhibitions flourished and set the trends in art of the early twentieth century. Signac was a guiding force in the Société and was its President from 1908 until his death. 

[[File:Paul Signac - Capo di Noli.jpg|alt=painting|thumb|''[[Capo di Noli]]'', 1898, oil on canvas, 93.5 × 75&nbsp;cm (36.8 × 29.5 in), [[Wallraf-Richartz Museum]], Cologne]]
[[File:Paul Signac, 1893-95, Au temps d’harmonie, oil on canvas, 310 x 410 cm.jpg|thumb|alt=painting|''In the Time of Harmony: the Golden Age is not in the Past, it is in the Future'', 1893–95, oil on canvas, 310 x 410&nbsp;cm (122 × 161.4 in), Mairie de Montreuil, Paris]]
In 1886 Signac met [[Vincent van Gogh]] in [[Paris]]. During 1887 the two artists regularly went to [[Asnières-sur-Seine]] together, where they painted such subjects as river landscapes and cafés. Initially, Van Gogh chiefly admired Signac's loose painting technique. Signac would also meet [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec|Toulouse Lautrec]] who was a friend of Van Gogh.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Portrait of Vincent van Gogh Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1887|url=https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/d0693V1962|access-date=2021-09-23|website=Van Gogh Museum|language=en|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923172612/https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/d0693V1962|url-status=live}}</ref>

In March 1889, Signac visited Van Gogh at [[Arles]]. In 1890, during the banquet of the [[Les XX|XX]] exhibition in [[Brussels]], Lautrec challenged to a duel the artist [[Henry de Groux|Henri de Groux]] who criticized Van Gogh's works. Signac  declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh’s honor if Lautrec was killed. De Groux apologized for the slight and left the group and the duel never took place.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bailey|first=Martin|date=2019-09-12|title=New discoveries: Paul Signac painted watercolours of Van Gogh's asylum|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/discovered-paul-signac-watercolours-of-van-gogh-s-asylum|access-date=2021-09-23|website=The Art Newspaper|language=en|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923172102/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/discovered-paul-signac-watercolours-of-van-gogh-s-asylum|url-status=live}}</ref>

The next year he made a short trip to Italy, seeing [[Genoa]], [[Florence]], and [[Naples]].

In 1888, Signac discovered [[anarchist]] ideas by reading [[Élisée Reclus]], [[Kropotkin]], and [[Jean Grave]], who all developed the ideas of anarchist communism. With his friends Angrand Cross, [[Maximilien Luce]], and [[Camille Pissarro]] he contributed to Jean Grave's paper, ''Les Temps Nouveaux'' (New Times).

In 1892, he sailed the [[Garonne River]] southeast in France to the Mediterranean Sea, spending time in Saint-Tropez.{{sfn|Ferretti-Bocquillon|2001|p=304}}

Signac experimented with various media. As well as oil paintings and [[watercolor painting|watercolors]] he made [[etching]]s, [[lithography|lithographs]], and many pen-and-ink sketches composed of small, laborious dots.

The Neo-Impressionists influenced the next generation: Signac inspired Henri Matisse and [[André Derain]] in particular, thus playing a decisive role in the evolution of [[Fauvism]]. Signac himself did not admire the style when it first appeared.<ref>Wright, Alastair. ''Matisse and the Subject of Modernism''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 94.</ref>

Having prospered well, his financial support of the arts was considerable. As donations, he sent regular cheques and made a gift of his works for five lotteries between 1895 and 1912.<ref name="PaulSignac">{{cite web
  | title = Paul Signac: 1863–1935
  | url = http://libcom.org/history/signac-paul-1863-1935
  | access-date = 6 November 2006
  | archive-date = 12 October 2006
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061012020813/http://libcom.org/history/signac-paul-1863-1935
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref> Signac's 1893 painting, ''In the Time of Harmony'' originally was entitled, ''In the Time of Anarchy'', but political repression targeting the anarchists in France at this time forced him to change the title before the work could be accepted by a gallery.<ref name="Alex Butterworth">{{cite news
  | title = The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents
  | publisher = Pantheon
  | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/27/world-never-was-alex-butterworth
  | first = Stuart
  | last = Christie
  | date = 27 March 2010
  | access-date = 12 December 2016
  | archive-date = 26 January 2021
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210126083432/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/27/world-never-was-alex-butterworth
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref>

At the 1905 Salon des Indépendants, [[Henri Matisse]] exhibited the proto-[[Fauvism|Fauve]] painting ''[[Luxe, Calme et Volupté]]''. The brightly colored composition was painted in 1904 after a summer spent working in [[St. Tropez]] on the [[French Riviera]] alongside the [[neo-Impressionism|neo-Impressionist]] painters [[Henri-Edmond Cross]] and Paul Signac.<ref>UCLA Art Council et al. 1966, p. 11</ref> The painting is Matisse's most important work in which he used the [[Divisionism|Divisionist]] technique advocated by Signac, which Matisse had adopted in 1898 after reading Signac's essay, ''d'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme''.<ref>Oxford Art Online, "Henri Matisse"</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/deugnedelacroi00signuoft Paul Signac, ''d'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme'', 1898 (Third edition 1921)]</ref> Signac purchased the work after the 1905 Salon des Indépendants. In 1908 Signac was elected president of the Twenty-fourth Salon des Indépendants.<ref name="Clement">[https://books.google.com/books?id=VcaMyvjUZhIC&q=metzinger&pg=PR23 Russell T. Clement, ''Les Fauves: A Sourcebook'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801115457/https://books.google.com/books?id=VcaMyvjUZhIC&pg=PR23&lpg=PR23&dq=salle%20VII%2C%20salon%20d%27automne%20de%201905&source=bl&ots=alVRJahAml&sig=6SkzgOftNxhpsdYdDNKbJjzqXUY&hl=en#v=onepage&q=metzinger&f=false |date=1 August 2020 }} {{ISBN|0-313-28333-8}}</ref>

As president of the [[Société des Artistes Indépendants]], from 1908 until his death, Signac encouraged younger artists by exhibiting the controversial works of the Fauves and the [[Cubism|Cubists]]. He was the first patron to buy a painting by Matisse.

Signac served as a juror with [[Florence Meyer Blumenthal]] in awarding the ''[[Prix Blumenthal]]'', a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.<ref name="FMBlumenthal">{{cite web
  | title = Florence Meyer Blumenthal
  | publisher = Jewish Women's Archive, Michele Siegel
  | url = http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blumenthal-florence-meyer
  | access-date = 13 July 2010
  | archive-date = 14 June 2021
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210614053013/https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/blumenthal-florence-meyer
  | url-status = live
  }}</ref>