1863-1935 French Paul Signac Galleries Paul Victor Jules Signac was born in Paris on November 11, 1863. He followed a course of training in architecture before deciding at the age of 18 to pursue a career as a painter. He sailed around the coasts of Europe, painting the landscapes he encountered. He also painted scenes of cities in France in his later years. 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. 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, the defining feature of pointillism. Many of Signac's paintings are of the French coast. 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. In March 1889, he visited Vincent van Gogh at Arles. The next year he made a short trip to Italy, seeing Genoa, Florence, and Naples. The Port of Saint-Tropez, oil on canvas, 1901Signac loved sailing and began to travel in 1892, sailing a small boat to almost all the ports of France, to Holland, and around the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople, basing his boat at St. Tropez, which he "discovered". From his various ports of call, Signac brought back vibrant, colourful watercolors, sketched rapidly from nature. From these sketches, he painted large studio canvases that are carefully worked out in small, mosaic-like squares of color, quite different from the tiny, variegated dots previously used by Seurat. Signac himself experimented with various media. As well as oil paintings and watercolours he made etchings, lithographs, and many pen-and-ink sketches composed of small, laborious dots. The neo-impressionists influenced the next generation: Signac inspired Henri Matisse and Andr?? Derain in particular, thus playing a decisive role in the evolution of Fauvism. As president of the Societe des Artistes Ind??pendants from 1908 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.  Related Paintings of Paul Signac :. | Women at the Well | The still life having bottle | antibes | milliners | portrieux opus |
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Jean-Pierre Franque
French, 1774-1860,French painter. He and his twin brother, Joseph-Boniface Franque (1774-1833), who was also a painter, were the sons of a modest farmer and, according to a local story, their youthful talent was such that the provincial government paid for them to study in Grenoble. They enrolled at the Ecole Gratuite in Grenoble and stayed for about two years (1786-8), training to become engravers. During the revolutionary period, the twins' education was taken over by the Departement de la Dreme. In 1792 their case was discussed at the National Assembly in Paris, which placed them in David's atelier and provided a pension for four years. David agreed to educate them but refused payment, writing to the President of the Assembly, 'I am overjoyed to be chosen to be the first teacher of these youths who could be called children of the nation since they owe everything to her.' The two brothers were considered very promising students, and David asked Jean-Pierre to assist him in the execution of the Intervention of the Sabine Women (1796-9; Paris, Louvre). Jean-Pierre also became involved with LES PRIMITIFS and the mysterious Maurice Quae (1779-1804), who reacted against Davidian principles and advocated a return to 'primitive' 15th-century Italian art. Franque demonstrated his independence from David in the selection of the subject for his 1806 Salon debut, the Dream of Love Induced by the Power of Harmony (destr.). In the spring of 1807 he was one of the 26 painters who entered a sketch (untraced) for the competition for a large painting representing Napoleon on the battlefield of Eylau, a competition won by Gros. In 1810 Franque produced Allegory of the Condition of France before the Return from Egypt (Paris, Louvre).
John Henry Twachtman
American Impressionist Painter, 1853-1902 American painter and printmaker. He began as a painter of window-shades but developed one of the most personal and poetic visions in American landscape painting, portraying nature on canvases that were, in the words of Childe Hassam, 'strong, and at the same time delicate even to evasiveness'. His first artistic training was under Frank Duveneck, with whom he studied first in Cincinnati and then in Munich (1875-7). His absorption of the Munich style, characterized by bravura brushwork and dextrous manipulation of pigment, with the lights painted as directly as possible into warm,
Christian Molsted
(1862-1930) was a Danish artist who specialized in marine painting. He is best known for his painting of the frigate Niels Juel during the Battle of Helgoland on 9 May 1864. Born in Dragør on 15 October 1862, Mølsted was the son of fisherman Andreas Adolf Nikolaj Mølsted and Ane Hans-Nielsdatter. With financial support from a relative, he completed his school education in Copenhagen at Det tekniske Selskab where he graduated in 1879. After sailing to Madeira that summer on the frigate Jylland, he entered the Danish Academy in October 1880 with mentors such as Frederik Vermehren, Jorgen Roed, Julius Exner and Carl Bloch. During his studies, Mølsted travelled to Paris and London where he was able to observe contemporary art. He graduated from the Academy with a painting diploma in January 1885. He first exhibited in December 1884 and thereafter at the spring exhibitions. In 1889, he was awarded the Neuhausen Prize for his Skibe i Havnen ved Larsens Plads. His subjects are for the most part taken from the coasts around Copenhagen or in Jutland. Among the artist favorite subjects were the heroic battles of captains Tordenskjold and Willemoes. Historical details, as well as detailed information about the ships, was provided for the paintings by Otto Dorge, a Dragør local expert. Later in life, he also made genre paintings. Mølsted's works were widely appreciated for his perfectionist approach, his attention to historical detail and his ability to bring things to life. He died on 10 May 1930 in Dragør.