Everything You Need To Know About Pointillism

Introduction to pointillism 

The “ism” found at the end of pointillism is a suffix at the end of many English words. It comes from Greek “ismos” and Latin “ismus”.

Pointillism is Technique of Painting creating a solid figure using tiny dots with two or more colors, the colours from a distance tends to mix to create new colours from a distance colours can show a whole different colour as when we see a pointillist painting, our eyes and mind work to blend the colours together and we see a three-dimensional image with a full range of blended colours and can also seem brighter, purer and more luminous than in a typical painting. Pointillism is oil on canvas type paintings. (The more dots apply to and area of the painting the darker seems the area.

What is movement and principle of design?

Movement shows actions or the path the viewer's eye follows throughout an artwork. In movement, the art should flow because the artist has the ability to control the viewer's eye. The artists control what the viewers see and how they see it, like a path leading across the page to the item the artist wants the viewer's attention focused on. It is achieved in a body of work by using similar elements throughout the work; harmony gives an uncomplicated look to a piece of artwork or sculpture.

Color: Comes from the three primaries and black and white. They have three properties – hue, value, and intensity.

Shape: Pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional spaces that can be defined by edges, setting one flat specific space apart from another. Shapes can be geometric (e.g.: square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) or organic (such as the shape of a puddle, blob, leaf, boomerang, etc.) in nature.

Space: Area provided for a particular purpose. Space includes the background, foreground and middle ground. Space refers to the distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece.

Facts about Pointillism and its movement?

Pointillism was developed by Georges Seurat in 1886 as well as his followers in 19th century France some of his followers are Paul Signac French 1863 -1935, Charles Angrand French 1854 – 1926, Henri-Edmond Cross French 1856 – 1910 pointillism it is a post-impressionist movement.

Extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more likely to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural color but way before Georges Seurat people in Australia aborigines were using pointillism technique painting with sticks and quills to paint of wall or as decoration on objects, nowadays aborigines uses this technique to paint on objects to sell to tourists as souvenir.

Pictures of Georges Seurat and his followers.

Charles Angrand - French 1854-1926

Henri-Edmond Cross – French 1856 – 1910

Some Artwork of Georges Seurat and his followers.
Seurat – “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”

Over the past several decades, many scholars have attempted to explain the meaning of this great painting. For some, it shows the growing middle class at leisure. Others think it shows social tensions between city dwellers of different social classes, all of whom gather in the same public space but do not interact.


Seurat – “The Circus”

This is beyond any question the most baroque work Seurat ever painted. The unfinished canvas is composed of circles, spirals, and ellipses. Exceptionally, it is built up on horizontals with the entrance to the ring at the right the only vertical break.

Seurat was fond of novels by the Goncourt brothers, and here gives us a visual counterpart to the Freres Zemgano , a tale about the circus. Lucie Cousturier wrote that the composition ``sets itself the aim of holding within one sweeping curve all the upward-running lines denoting circus fun and games.'' The movement from right to left, that of the lady bareback rider who, ``a modern goddess of grace and freedom,'' is doing acrobatics on the white horse, is counterpoised by the movement of the clown in the center with the garish wig, who arises perpendicularly from the foreground.

The figure in the first row of seats, with a silk hat and a peak of hair visible under it, is the painter Charles Angrand, a friend of Seurat's.

Paul Signac – “Port St. Tropez”

Seduced by the shimmering colours of the landscape - a pink and mauve sea at sunset on the Graniers Beach against the blue silhouette of the Maures mountain range - the painter set out to create his own private Eden. Here, in this sleepy fishing village, sailing, dancing, picnicking, lounging, swimming and playing pétanque were all part of his utopian vision of a life in harmony with nature. "I've just discovered happiness," he told his painter friends, and the word was out: come to St Tropez to indulge your fantasies.


Charles Angrand – “Le Petit Port

On this painting the painter wanted to show view of the port with its boat, blue sea and bright sky found over the small village and some trees.


Henri Edmond Cross – “Paysage avec le cap Nègre

This painting shows great details of the mountain and people cultivating at the foot, trees of many different colours from light green to dark green, even the mountain has lots of different colours.