The Neo Impressionist Portrait 1886 1904

"Published on the occasion of the exhibition Face to Face: Neo-Impressionist Portraits, 1886-1904. ING Cultural Centre, Brussels, February 19-May 18, 2014, Indianapolis Museum of Art, June 13-September 7, 2014."

A beautifully illustrated investigation of Neo-Impressionism in late 19th-century Paris and Brussels This stunning catalogue explores the creative exchange between Neo-Impressionist painters and Symbolist writers and composers in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Symbolism, with its emphasis on subjectivity, dream worlds, and spirituality, has often been considered at odds with Neo-Impressionism's approach to portraying color and light. This book repositions the relationship between these movements and looks at how Neo-Impressionist artists such as Maximilien Luce, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Henry van de Velde created evocative landscape and figural scenes by depicting emptiness, contemplative moods, Arcadia, and other themes. Beautifully illustrated with 130 color images, this book reveals the vibrancy and depth of the Neo-Impressionist movement in Paris and Brussels in the late 19th century.

An absorbing examination of the birth and development of this extraordinary art movement in France and Belgium from the 1880s through to the outbreak of the First World War.

Published in 2017 in Great Britain by National Portrait Gallery Publications, London.

The Belgian painter Théo Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) is one of the most emblematic figures of the neo-Impressionist movement, together with Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. With his delicate touch, refined chromatic sense and great elegance--above all in his portraits--he produced some of the finest works of Divisionism. Yet Van Rysselberghe's oeuvre is not limited to his best-known works of his neo-Impressionist period (1888-96). Distancing himself from the strict division of colors, he subsequently moved towards a more fluid style that nevertheless retained his signature luminosity. His portraits and female nudes, the landscapes he brought back from his numerous trips to Morocco, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, all reveal an insatiable curiosity and an immense talent, coupled with a rare sensibility. This generous new catalogue presents many works that have never been published before.

"The book places this painting in the historical context of Khnopff's times and social milieu and traces the advent of Symbolism as a literary and artistic movement. An analysis of the portrait itself is supported by an array of related paintings, details, and technical photographs. Finally, the author uses Khnopff's portraits as a taking-off point for a broader discussion of Symbolist art."--BOOK JACKET.