Comprobación de hipótesis

C h a p t e r F o u r— E a r l y s o u r c e s 194

Of his emphasis on morality, took on more significance than just the simple representation of light and dark. Transparent shadows and Impasted lights were the praiseworthy techniques in paintings for Blanc, since they expressed an inherent high morality, while those works which lacked this technique were criticised for their subsequent lower moral tone. Yet, as paint became more

consistent from mechanical production, techniques developed so that both the darks and lights could be applied thickly. It is possible to see how Seurat reconciled these changes technically but whether he managed to reconcile the moral implications of the

changed materials is something we will never know.

Blanc's major colours were yellow, blue and red, with violet, green and orange making up the binary colours; black and white were to be used sparingly to enhance and refresh the six basic colours. Blanc used Delacroix as a reference not just

for the artist's colour usage but for Delacroix's "quasi-

scientific" application of colour; he encouraged artists to copy this master's methods to enliven their w o r k s . B l a n c knew

Delacroix personally and wrote of their discussions on colour as well as explaining Delacroix's colour theory.i"* Delacroix's use of broken paint strokes in addition to his application of colour opposites to increase colour contrasts were cited by Blanc and noted by Seurat, both from Blanc's references as well as from studying works of Delacroix, is

11 Authea, Callan, TeGbriicrues of the Impressioidsts. London. 1982, p. 27. :i| Blanc «as not alone is this moralistic judgement of a painting technique. |

1? Blanc, Qp.oit. . p. 159. See Illustration 51. 4

1® Herbert, "Seurat's Theories", in Sutter's Heo-Impressionists. London, |

1970, p. 23. I

1^ See Blanc's t«o~part article "Eugène Delacroix", Gazette des beaux-arts. J

Feb. 1864. I

C h a p t e r Fom *— E a r l y s o u r c e s 195

Blanc'S theory of optical mixing, based upon Delacroix's broken paint strokes, predicted colours being recombined in the eye to greater effect than colours which had been physically blended together; the name coined for this technique was "melange optique". Blanc realised that new tones could be formed by an optical mixture of closely situated colours "..if the observer moved sufficiently away from the painting in question, In

order to achieve these effects, Blanc suggested the artist use dots, or stars, or small stripes of colour to encourage blending. Basically, these are reminiscent of the possibilities which had been espoused by Chevreul for optical mixing some 30 years

earlier, even though Chevreul was speaking more of residual colour mixing which occurred though improper simultaneous cont ra s t app11cations.

The other key contribution from Blanc was the autonomous meaning he believed was inherent in lines. Although this is directly traceable in origin to Humbert de Superville, most literature cites a direct connection from Blanc to Seurat, i? Blanc was influenced by the ideas of Humbert to such an extent that some feel he, "...quite literally plagiarizes Humbert's idea [ that man is an extension of the e a r t h . especially when Blanc begins his discourse about the communal emotional experience in man. i*

Blanc believed that there was a common human experience which meant that certain directions of movement, and certain

Homer, Op.cit.. p. 32. The fact that distance mas mentioned hy Blanc, amongst others, hut for«gotten by the time it came to criticise the paintings is part of a contimiing cycle faced by supporters of divisionist art styles.

Barbara Stafford, Symbol and llvth: Humbert de Sunerville's Essav on lihsQlute Signs in Ar t . London, 1979, p. 181.

C h a p t e r Forut*— E a r l y s o u r c e s 196

colours, would elicit similar reactions across the broad spectrum of humans. For example, a simplification of the physiognomy of the features in the human face, as depicted in the three schemas below, would provoke similar reactions from people.

X

Three schematic faces as suggested by Blanc ( 1870, p. 36) 19 Blanc does elaborate upon Humbert's ideas of emotion being

associated with visual movement; Upward implies gaiety, downward evokes sadness and horizontal movement is equated with calmness. Regardless of the origin of the idea, an application of this is not seen in Seurat's work until the late 1880s.

An excellent example of emotion-movement connection can be found in Seurat’s depiction of the spectators in Cirque: their slanty-eyed features were a direct influence of Blanc who had formed a connection between between the Chinese physiognomy and their architecture— which he believed indicated a universal ".. prototype of hilarity. Again, it was the works Seurat began after 1886 which evinced more traceable influences from Blanc.

Basically, the message from Blanc was that the artist bad to rely upon the classical or formal background and training which

Song. Op. Cit-. p . 57. Although these figm'es were shown in the 1870 edition of Blanc’s Grammaire on p. 36, a fuller description of their use a.nd

“provenance", if you will, is found in Song's treatise.

John Russell, Seurat. London, 1965, p. 133, referring to p. 117 in Blanc's Grammaire. See It. Zimmerman's, Seurat and the art theory of his time. Fonds Mercator, Antwerp, 1991, p. 381.

C h a p t e r F o u r— E a r l y s o u r c e s 197

would best enable M m to proceed with newer ideas; the basic skills and foundations must be mastered before newer techniques could be applied. For example, the section on perspective by Blanc Is more pragmatic than theoretically-oriented. Even so,

one suspects that, once Seurat had gathered the basic constructs from Blanc's material, then the balance went much more toward the theoretical side. One need only to look closely at La Grande Jatte, for example, to see a large amount of traditional

pictorial techniques which were required to achieve the desired outcome, even though his burgeoning theory did not suggest or account for such techniques.

Recently, Herbert has wished to emphasise that Blanc provides the key tomrds the broad attitude of Seurat and his relationship between making a picture and using science; however, Herbert gives the misguided impression, to my mind, that Blanc provided the greatest influence in Seurat's t h e o r y . Herbert's emphasis on Blanc's Importance to Seurat seems too strong; one cannot say that Seurat's paintings are a natural outcome of, or can be explained by reference to, Blanc's writings over all others. There is an influence from Blanc, yes, but not an over­ riding dictation of style and technique.

Since Seurat had read Blanc as a schoolboy, one wonders how a reading at such a young age would have produced such a lasting impression that no subsequent theories could have equalled or challenged its effect. How could Seurat have developed a theory of his own and synthesized the salient points from existing

theories by numerous writers in several fields, if he had been so singularly affected by Blanc? The gist of Blanc's ideas is felt

C h a p t e r F ou r-— E a r l y s o u r c e s 198

in Seurat's pieces but it is not until his later works that direct pictorial evidence becomes apparent in the visages of the people in the paintings. If Blanc's influence, with an equal

influence from Superville through Blanc, had been so strong, surely these visual signs would have been apparent much earlier on in Seurat's career. The fact that Seurat read Blanc at an early age and employed some of his concepts before re-employing more of Blanc's concepts later on, suggests to me that Seurat returned to Blanc for inspiration rather than relying upon him continuously for ideas.

C h a p t e r Fom -— E a r l y s o m -c e s 199

Sumbert de Superville

The Dutch painter-theorist David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville (1770-1849) wrote Essai sur les signes inconditionnels dans l'art, the first section of which was published in 1827.1 This is basically a treatise on physiognomy in which Humbert discusses how humans interpret meanings in faces from the

directions of the individual parts— eyes, nose, mouth— before he extrapolates this notion to the point that "...certain

directional lines and colors will infallibly, unconditionally, and for all men, convey certain emotions.From a long and intensive study of nature and human anatomy, Humbert attempts to link three usually disparate dimensions : the physical,

intellectual, and moral. He developed a system of signs from his studies which he believed could be used to exhibit and elicit specific reactions.3 It is this notion, more than anything else provided initially by Humbert and later supplemented by Blanc,

which appears in graphic representation in two of Seurat's later paintings. Le Chahut and Le Cirque.

Hot only could lines serve as vehicles of expression hut colours, too, could be used to convey feelings. Humbert outlined a basic colour system which had symbolic associations. The three primaries black, white and red which represent dark, light and fire, respectively, are interspersed with yellow (between white and red), blue (between black and white) and green (between black and red) with green representing nature and life.4 On their owi merits, these colours have little in common with the colours used

1 Barbara M. Stafford, Symbol and Myth: Humbert de Superville‘s Essay on Absolute Siqxts in Art. LoMon, 1979.

^ Stafford, ou.cit. . p. 31. Stafford, ou.oit. , p. 89.

C h a p t e r F o u r— E a r l y s o u i'c e s 2 0 0

by Seurat. It was not mit il Humbert showed how the colours had become associated with eliciting certain emotions that Seurat's

Interest was arrested. Humbert's expressive theory united line and colour and showed how they reinforced one another in

expressing emotion. Seurat himself is known to have referred to his canvasses as "‘toiles de lutte' (canvasses of combat), also as ‘toiles de recherches et si possible de conquête' (research canvasses, conquests if possible)" which suggests that he was well aware of the emotional impact of his lines and c o l o u r s .5

In the second book of his essay, Humbert indicates the relevance of the primary colours and forms, as he has set them, to the arts. Painting, he felt, was a visible expression of a human thought when the intellect captures a moment in time and the mind expresses the concept by signs— via primary colours and forms and their associated aesthetics.& Humbert provided a simple schema for those interested in employing his concepts which he depicted in a synoptic table. ^ If one were to cite the basic directions, the associated states of mind and their

metaphorical analogies, the basic layout would be as follows:

Expansive Horizontal Convergent

Yacil la 11 on, Equil ib rium, C one en t ra 11 on

agitation calm contemplation

Scattering Order Solemnity

Explosiveness Brightness,light Depth, Darkness refulgence

Red %ite Black^

® The first commerit was in a draft of a letter to Beaubourg (held in the de Eauke archives) while the second was noted by Terhaeren in “iSeorqes Seurat" , 1891.

^ Stafford, op.oit.. p. 37.

^ Consult William Homer, Seui'at and the Science of Painting. Cambridge, 1964, p. 203 originally from Humbert, Qp.oit.. p. 25.