In the context of Divisionism, explain the Color theory of the Theoretical foundations and development.
Charles Blanc's Grammaire des arts du dessin introduced Seurat to the theories of color and vision that would inspire chromoluminarism. Blanc's work, drawing from the theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul and Eugène Delacroix, stated that optical mixing would produce more vibrant and pure colors than the traditional process of mixing pigments. Mixing pigments physically is a subtractive process with cyan, magenta and yellow being the primary colors. On the other hand, if colored light is mixed together, an additive mixture results, a process in which the primary colors are red, green and blue.
In Divisionist color theory, artists interpreted the scientific literature through making light operate in one of the following contexts:
Local color
As the dominant element of the painting, local color refers to the true color of subjects, e.g. green grass or blue sky.
Direct sunlight
As appropriate, yellow-orange colors representing the sun's action would be interspersed with the natural colors to emulate the effect of direct sunlight.
Shadow
If lighting is only indirect, various other colors, such as blues, reds and purples, can be used to simulate the darkness and shadows.
Reflected light
An object that is adjacent to another in a painting could cast reflected colors onto it.
Contrast
To take advantage of Chevreul's theory of simultaneous contrast, contrasting colors might be placed in close proximity.Seurat's theories intrigued many of his contemporaries, as other artists seeking a reaction against Impressionism joined the Neo-Impressionist movement. Paul Signac, in particular, became one of the main proponents of divisionist theory, especially after Seurat's death in 1891. In fact, Signac's book, D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme, published in 1899, coined the term Divisionism and became widely recognized as the manifesto of Neo-Impressionism.
Paul Signac Color theory subtractive process primary colors Impressionism color theory pigments Neo-Impressionism additive mixture simultaneous contrast Michel Eugène Chevreul Eugène Delacroix Charles Blanc Neo-Impressionist