Pointillism (painting technique)

Painting technique whereby tones and hues are obtained by applying regular small touches of unmixed pigment on the canvas so that they combine optically. Pointillism refers only to the technique while Neo-Impressionism refers both to the style created by Georges Seurat and the ensuing movement that flourished between 1886 and 1906. Seurat himself actually peferred the term "chromo-luminarism, " conveying his dual interest in intensifying light effects and color effects. The French critic Félix Fénéon coined the term "peinture au point" in 1886 after seeing Seurat's "La Grande Jatte." Paul Signac offered the alternative term of "divisionism" in his book "D'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme (1899).