Finding aid for the Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence, 1860-1935 870524

Lesley Heins Walker.
Special Collections
1998
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu


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

box 1, folder 1-2

Letters to Fer

box 1, folder 3

Letters to Pissarro and Monet

box 1, folder 4-5

Letters to artists, museum curators, and colleagues, , 1907-1935 undated

Scope and Contents note

Many are on Société des Artistes Indépendants stationary.
box 1, folder 6

Manuscript for L'Exposition des Peintures Provinçaux

box 1, folder 7

Letters from Paul Signac to his cousin Albert Signac

box 1, folder 8

Letters from Paul Signac to his cousins, ca. 1912

box 1, folder 9

Letters from Julie Signac (presumably Paul's aunt) to Marie and Albert Signac (his cousins)

box 1, folder 10

Letters addressed to Madame Veuve Signac, 1914-1918

box 1, folder 11

Letters from H. Signac addressed to Julie Signac, 1902-1910

box 1, folder 12

Letters from Julie Signac to Albert Signac

box 1, folder 13

Letters from L.A. Signac (presumably Paul's grandfather) to Julie Paché and his son Alfred Signac, 1860-1862

box 1, folder 14

Letters from the Héberts to Julie and Alfred Signac

box 1, folder 15

Letters from an N. Badet

box 1, folder 16

Letters from Cousin Dorez, 1888-1889

box 1, folder 17

Unidentified family letters

box 1, folder 18

Letters from a Madame Lantru

Scope and Contents note

Presumably the Signac family wetnurse.