Next auction 9th November to be held in New York at Christie's presents a beautiful work – in a small version – by Seraut "Les Poseuses, Ensemble" (1886-1888), where the artist shows the full expressive potential of pointillism. The large canvas resides in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Only a handful of drawings and oil studies of Les Poseuses exist, most of which are owned by museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Orsay Museum. Painted in 1888, the present composition in the collection of Paul G. Allen is believed to have been executed after the painting was completed. It is the most refined version of the scene among the associated works, with larger dots and richer, warmer tones enhancing its effects.
The Pointillism movement was launched in 1886 and took shape through the efforts of Georges Seurat
A technical system which he called “chromoluminarismwhich did away with traditional line drawing and instead consisted of applying precise dots of contrasting pigments next to each other on canvas. When done correctly, the dots, when viewed from a remover, would come together in bold defined shapes and bright, saturated colors in a full range of hues. Rather than having the artist mix the colors on a palette first, the viewer's eye does the mixing, which produces a much more luminescent display of color, a phenomenon Seurat understood by studying the writings of color theorists Michel-Eugène Chevreul, Charles Henry, and Ogden Rood.
One of the most famous paintings in the history of art, the monumental A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86), was painted by Seurat using pointillism. With the La Grande Jatte exhibition at the last major exhibition of Impressionism in 1886, together with the works of the pointillists Paul Signac and Camille Pissarro, the neo-impressionism. The art critic Félix Fénéon, seeing the pointillist works in that exhibition, coined the name Neo-Impressionists for the small group of artists, which at that time included Signac, Camille Pissarro and his son Lucien, Albert Duboit-Pillet, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Charles Angrand. The group grew to include Maximilien Luce, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Henry van de Velde and others. Seurat died suddenly of illness in 1891, aged only 31, and Signac assumed the leadership of the movement, which continued until around 1906 (Cubism would begin to take possession of the avant-garde imagery soon after). Neo-Impressionism had a lasting effect on many artists and movements, most notably Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse (especially, for example, Matisse's Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904–05) and much later, Pop Art.
The Philanthropy of Collector Paul G. Allen (1953-2018)
Since the co-founding of Microsoft in 1975 from starting his first charitable foundation in 1986, from establishing the acclaimed Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in 2000 to launching the Allen Institute in 2003 with his breakthrough scientific discoveries across brain science, cellular science, and immunology, Paul G. Allen lived a life motivated by a love of ideas and making the world a better place. An avid art collector for decades, Allen began sharing pieces of his collection publicly in the late 90s through dozens of often anonymous loans to museums around the world. In addition, he has mounted exhibitions that have shared highlights of his collection with the public, including the renowned Seeing Nature exhibition that toured nationally in 2016. He has presented 39 iconic landscape paintings that have
His philanthropic contributions of more than $2,65 billion during his lifetime they deepened our understanding of life sciences, shared art, music and film with the world, tackled epidemics, helped save endangered species, explored the ocean floor and invested in more vibrant and resilient communities. Many have called Allen a polymath whose knowledge and skills spanned a wide range of disciplines. Allen passed away in October 2018, but the breadth and depth of his generosity and his desire to continue improving the lives of people around the world even after his death will create an impact for generations to come.