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Signac (Paul) Letters and Signac Family Correspondence
870524  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Arrangement note
  • Biographical Historical Note
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Publication Rights
  • Access

  • Contributing Institution: Special Collections
    Title: Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence
    Creator: Signac, Paul, 1863-1935
    Creator: Turpin, Georges
    Creator: Lecomte, Georges, 1867-1958
    Creator: Guillemot, Maurice
    Creator: Martineau, Henri, 1882-1958
    Creator: Pissarro, Camille, 1830-1903
    Creator: Moreau, Luc-Albert, 1882-1948
    Creator: Fer, Edouard
    Identifier/Call Number: 870524
    Physical Description: 93 items
    Date (inclusive): 1860-1935
    Abstract: Letters from French painter Paul Signac to several colleagues discussing work in progress, exhibitions, contemporary art, the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and personal and financial matters. A significant number addressed to Edouard Fer, a neo-impressionist disciple whose independent means and connections enabled him to promote Signac's career. Other correspondents include Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Georges Turpin, Henri Martineau, Georges Lecomte, and Luc-Albert Moreau. Most of the letters are Signac family correspondence; some of these are addressed by Paul Signac to his cousins.
    Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record  for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    Language of Material: French .

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Paul Signac Letters and Signac Family Correspondence contains letters from Signac to several colleagues discussing work in progress, exhibitions, contemporary art, the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and personal and financial matters. A significant number of these letters are addressed to Edouard Fer, a neo-Impressionist disciple whose independent means and connections enabled him to promote Signac's career. Other correspondents include Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Georges Turpin, Henri Martineau, Georges Lecomte, and Luc-Albert Moreau. There is also a draft essay for a review of the Exposition des peintres provençaux held in 1902. Most of the letters in this collection are Signac family correspondence; some of these are addressed by Paul Signac to his cousins. (The repository also holds a significant series of Signac's correspondence within the papers of Theo van Rysselberghe, accn. no. 870305.)
    In his thirty-five letters to Edouard Fer (1916-1932, bulk 1918-1921) Signac discusses the organization of exhibitions, mostly in Switzerland, and the critical reaction to his own work. He does not forget to offer Fer the occasional bit of advice. Other letters include ten to Pissarro (1886-1899) in one of which he comments on Pissarro's stylistic evolution and his own recent landscape painting in the Midi (1897); a letter that recounts the formation of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884 with mention of Redon, Seurat, and Theodore Rousseau; a letter to Georges Lecomte where Signac comments on Symbolism, Puvis de Chavannes, Maximilien Luce, and Lecomte's recent work; a letter from Brussels describing at great length a visit to a foundry (1897); two notes to Henri Martineau pertaining to Signac's study of Stendal (1919, 1928); one letter to an unnamed critic thanking him for a favorable article and describing Signac's trips to Brittany and Provence (1933); and one fragment of a letter in response to an enquete on interior decorating.
    A draft essay of a review of the Exposition des Peintres Provençaux held in Marseilles in 1902, includes an introductory statement on the exhibition followed by remarks characterizing the work of individual painters including Jean Antoine Constantin, Emile Loubon, Auguste Aiguier, Gustave Ricard, Adolphe Monticelli, and Paul Guigou.
    Signac family correspondence deals with family life, children, illness, vacations, money worries, marriages, divorces and so forth. A small number of these are written by Paul Signac to his cousins. The rest are between other family members. Most of the letters seem to be about Julie and Alfred Signac's family—Paul Signac's aunt and uncle. Included are letters from his grandmother, grandfather, and cousins.

    Arrangement note

    Arranged in one series.

    Biographical Historical Note

    Parisian painter Paul Signac (1863-1935), a founder of the Salon des Indépendants, developed with Georges Seurat the technique of pointillism, or divisionism, and was a principal adherent and spokesman for the Neo-Impressionist movement. He was the author of the books D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionnisme (1899) and Jongkind (1927).

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired in 1987.

    Preferred Citation

    Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence 1860-1935, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 870524.
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa870524

    Publication Rights

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- France
    Painting, Modern -- 19th century -- France
    Symbolism (Art movement)
    Art -- Exhibitions
    Neo-impressionism (Art)
    Interior decoration
    Société des artistes indépendants (Paris, France)
    Signac, Paul, 1863-1935
    Seurat, Georges, 1859-1891
    Rousseau, Théodore, 1812-1867
    Ricard, Gustave, 1823-1873
    Redon, Odilon, 1840-1916
    Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre, 1824-1898
    Luce, Maximilien, 1858-1941
    Loubon, Emile, 1809-1863
    Monticelli, Adolphe, 1824-1886
    Aiguier, Louis Auguste Lauren
    Exposition de peintres provencaux (Marseilles, France)
    Constantin, Jean-Antoine, 1756-1844
    Guigou, Paul, 1834-1871