Finding aid for the Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence, 1860-1935
Finding aid prepared by Lesley Heins Walker.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence
Date (inclusive): 1860-1935
Number: 870524
Creator/Collector:
Signac, Paul, 1863-1935
Physical Description:
93.0 items
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
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.
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Language: Collection material is in
French
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).
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Publication Rights
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
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 1987.
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.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Names
Aiguier, Louis Auguste Lauren
Constantin, Jean-Antoine, 1756-1844
Guigou, Paul, 1834-1871
Loubon, Emile, 1809-1863
Luce, Maximilien, 1858-1941
Monticelli, Adolphe, 1824-1886
Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre, 1824-1898
Redon, Odilon, 1840-1916
Ricard, Gustave, 1823-1873
Rousseau, Théodore, 1812-1867
Seurat, Georges, 1859-1891
Signac, Paul, 1863-1935
Subjects - Corporate Bodies
Exposition de peintres provencaux (Marseilles, France)
Société des artistes indépendants (Paris, France)
Subjects - Topics
Art--Exhibitions
Interior decoration
Neo-impressionism (Art)
Painting, Modern--19th century--France
Painting, Modern--20th century--France
Symbolism (Art movement)
Contributors
Fer, Edouard, 1887-1959
Guillemot, Maurice
Lecomte, Georges, 1867-1958
Martineau, Henri, 1882-1958
Moreau, Luc-Albert, 1882-1948
Pissarro, Camille, 1830-1903
Turpin, Georges, 1885-
Folder 3
Letters to Pissarro and Monet
Folder 4-5
Letters to artists, museum curators, and colleagues, ,
1907-1935 undated
Scope and Content Note
Many are on Société des Artistes Indépendants stationary.
Folder 6
Manuscript for L'Exposition des Peintures Provinçaux
Folder 7
Letters from Paul Signac to his cousin Albert Signac
Folder 8
Letters from Paul Signac to his cousins,
ca. 1912
Folder 9
Letters from Julie Signac (presumably Paul's aunt) to Marie and Albert Signac (his cousins)
Folder 10
Letters addressed to Madame Veuve Signac,
1914-1918
Folder 11
Letters from H. Signac addressed to Julie Signac,
1902-1910
Folder 12
Letters from Julie Signac to Albert Signac
Folder 13
Letters from L.A. Signac (presumably Paul's grandfather) to Julie Paché and his son Alfred Signac,
1860-1862
Folder 14
Letters from the Héberts to Julie and Alfred Signac
Folder 16
Letters from Cousin Dorez,
1888-1889
Folder 17
Unidentified family letters
Folder 18
Letters from a Madame Lantru
Scope and Content Note
Presumably the Signac family wetnurse.
