Focus on The Lagoon of Saint Mark, Venice and discuss the Signac and Seurat.
Signac came into contact with this technique through Seurat as the two became good friends. Signac met Seurat in 1884 at a meeting of the Société des Artistes Indépendants.  The two exhibited their work together at the first Salon des Indépendants.  Seurat was Signac's primary source of influence and the two were able to come up with a similar the process of color division on a canvas.  Eugene Chevreul was a scientist who put forth the theory that colors appear most intensely when placed next to their complements, coining this theory the "law of simultaneous contrast".  Signac and Seurat took this theory and created paintings that explored the scientific reasoning behind color.
Signac stayed true to this technique throughout his career from his meeting Seurat until his death in 1935. He published treatises on the topic of color such as D'Eugène Delacroix au Neo-Impressionnisme, in 1898. Signac was active in the Neo-Impressionist world becoming president of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1908 and remaining in office until his death. His more famous paintings depict seascapes such as Antibes, The Pink Cloud (1916). The Lagoon of St. Mark is an early example of his seascapes that clearly demonstrates the process of color division and the law of simultaneous contrast.
Hanging in the Impressionist gallery, in the Chrysler Museum of Art, Signac's 1905 painting is surrounded by the likes of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre Renoir. The room is awash with color and movement and amidst it all, The Lagoon is displayed predominantly on the back wall. Next to it hangs Henri-Edmond Cross's Excursion complementing Signac's painting. The two works utilize the pointillist technique although they sport notable differences. Cross was a contemporary of Signac's and the two met at the founding of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884; Cross however didn't practice the theory of Divisionism until 1891. Comparing Signac's painting with Cross's, both clearly utilize the pointillist technique to the fullest, however The Lagoon is much less delineated in terms of appearance. With The Lagoon, viewers are required to step away from the painting in order to take in the whole image; whereas with Excursion, the entirety of the image can be seen closer to the canvas.
Signac's life was devoted to finding harmony with colour, writing, "It is through the harmonies of lines and of colors...not through the subject that the painter ought to stir the emotions." Achieving a perfect balance with colour in this painting is one testament to Signac's skill as a Neo-Impressionist artist.
Pierre Renoir Edgar Degas Henri-Edmond Cross Chrysler Museum of Art Eugene Chevreul Claude Monet Divisionism Société des Artistes Indépendants