INVENTORY OF THE PAUL SIGNAC LETTERS AND SIGNAC FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1860-1935

Inventory prepared by Lesley Heins Walker.

The Getty Research Institute

Research Library

Special Collections and Visual Resources

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100

Los Angeles, California 90049-1688

Phone: (310) 440-7390

Fax: (310) 440-7780

Email Requests: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/reference_form.html

URL: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library

J. Paul Getty Trust.

INVENTORY OF THE PAUL SIGNAC LETTERS AND SIGNAC FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE, 1860-1935

Accession no. 870524

Inventory prepared by Lesley Heins Walker

Getty Research Institute

Contact Information:

The Getty Research Institute
Research Library
Special Collections and Visual Resources
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California 90049-1688
Phone: (310) 440-7390
Fax: (310) 440-7780
Email Requests: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/reference_form.html
URL: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/

Processed by:: Lesley Heins Walker
Date Completed:: September 1996, revised 2005 July
Encoded by:: Philip Curtis

Descriptive Summary

Title: Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence

Date (inclusive): 1860-1935

Collection number: 870524

Creator: Signac, Paul, 1863-1935

Extent: 93 items

Repository: Getty Research Institute

Research Library

Special Collections and Visual Resources

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100

Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688

Abstract: Letters from French painter Paul Signac to several colleagues discussing work in progress, exhibitions, contemporary art, the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and personal and financial matters. A significant number addressed to Edouard Fer, a neo-impressionist disciple whose independent means and connections enabled him to promote Signac's career. Other correspondents include Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Georges Turpin, Henri Martineau, Georges Lecomte, and Luc-Albert Moreau. Most of the letters are Signac family correspondence; some of these are addressed by Paul Signac to his cousins.

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Language: Collection material in French

Administrative Information

Access

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Publication Rights

Contact Library Rights and Reproductions

Preferred Citation

Paul Signac letters and Signac family correspondence 1860-1935, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 870524.

Acquisition Information

Acquired in 1987.

Biographical Historical Note

Parisian painter Paul Signac (1863-1935), a founder of the Salon des Indépendants, developed with Georges Seurat the technique of pointillism, or divisionism, and was a principal adherent and spokesman for the Neo-Impressionist movement. He was the author of the books D'Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionnisme (1899) and Jongkind (1927).

Scope and Content of Collection

The Paul Signac Letters and Signac Family Correspondence contains letters from Signac to several colleagues discussing work in progress, exhibitions, contemporary art, the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and personal and financial matters. A significant number of these letters are addressed to Edouard Fer, a neo-Impressionist disciple whose independent means and connections enabled him to promote Signac's career. Other correspondents include Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Georges Turpin, Henri Martineau, Georges Lecomte, and Luc-Albert Moreau. There is also a draft essay for a review of the Exposition des peintres provençaux held in 1902. Most of the letters in this collection are Signac family correspondence; some of these are addressed by Paul Signac to his cousins. (The repository also holds a significant series of Signac's correspondence within the papers of Theo van Rysselberghe, accn. no. 870305.)

In his thirty-five letters to Edouard Fer (1916-1932, bulk 1918-1921) Signac discusses the organization of exhibitions, mostly in Switzerland, and the critical reaction to his own work. He does not forget to offer Fer the occasional bit of advice. Other letters include ten to Pissarro (1886-1899) in one of which he comments on Pissarro's stylistic evolution and his own recent landscape painting in the Midi (1897); a letter that recounts the formation of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884 with mention of Redon, Seurat, and Theodore Rousseau; a letter to Georges Lecomte where Signac comments on Symbolism, Puvis de Chavannes, Maximilien Luce, and Lecomte's recent work; a letter from Brussels describing at great length a visit to a foundry (1897); two notes to Henri Martineau pertaining to Signac's study of Stendal (1919, 1928); one letter to an unnamed critic thanking him for a favorable article and describing Signac's trips to Brittany and Provence (1933); and one fragment of a letter in response to an enquete on interior decorating.

A draft essay of a review of the Exposition des Peintres Provençaux held in Marseilles in 1902, includes an introductory statement on the exhibition followed by remarks characterizing the work of individual painters including Jean Antoine Constantin, Emile Loubon, Auguste Aiguier, Gustave Ricard, Adolphe Monticelli, and Paul Guigou.

Signac family correspondence deals with family life, children, illness, vacations, money worries, marriages, divorces and so forth. A small number of these are written by Paul Signac to his cousins. The rest are between other family members. Most of the letters seem to be about Julie and Alfred Signac's family—Paul Signac's aunt and uncle. Included are letters from his grandmother, grandfather, and cousins.

Arrangement

Arranged in one series.

Controlled Access terms

Subjects

Aiguier, Louis Auguste Lauren, 1819-1865

Constantin, Jean-Antoine, 1756-1844

Guigou, Paul, 1834-1871

Loubon, Emile, 1809-1863

Luce, Maximilien, 1858-1941

Monticelli, Adolphe, 1824-1886

Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre, 1824-1898

Redon, Odilon, 1840-1916

Ricard, Gustave, 1823-1873

Rousseau, Théodore, 1812-1867;

Seurat, Georges, 1859-1891

Signac, Paul, 1863-1935

Société des artistes indépendants (Paris, France)

Exposition de peintres provencaux (Marseilles, France)

Art—Exhibitions

Interior decoration

Neo-impressionism (Art)

Painting, Modern—19th century—France

Painting, Modern—20th century—France

Symbolism (Art movement)

Contributors

Fer, Edouard, 1887-1959

Guillemot, Maurice

Lecomte, Georges, 1867-1958

Martineau, Henri, 1882-1958

Moreau, Luc-Albert, 1882-1948

Pissarro, Camille, 1830-1903

Turpin, Georges, 1885-

Folder 1-2

Letters to Fer

Folder 3

Letters to Pissarro and Monet

Folder 4-5

Letters to artists, museum curators, and colleagues, 1907-1935, undated

Scope and Content Note

Many are on Société des Artistes Indépendants stationary.

Folder 6

Manuscript for L'Exposition des Peintures Provinçaux

Folder 7

Letters from Paul Signac to his cousin Albert Signac

Folder 8

Letters from Paul Signac to his cousins, ca. 1912

Folder 9

Letters from Julie Signac (presumably Paul's aunt) to Marie and Albert Signac (his cousins)

Folder 10

Letters addressed to Madame Veuve Signac, 1914-1918

Folder 11

Letters from H. Signac addressed to Julie Signac, 1902-1910

Folder 12

Letters from Julie Signac to Albert Signac

Folder 13

Letters from L.A. Signac (presumably Paul's grandfather) to Julie Paché and his son Alfred Signac, 1860-1862

Folder 14

Letters from the Héberts to Julie and Alfred Signac

Folder 15

Letters from an N. Badet

Folder 16

Letters from Cousin Dorez, 1888-1889

Folder 17

Unidentified family letters

Folder 18

Letters from a Madame Lantru

Scope and Content Note

Presumably the Signac family wetnurse.

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