Coastal Scene

about 1892, Théo van Rysselberghe

Van Rysselberghe adopted the pointillist style, creating a composition using countless tiny dots of complementary colours, after seeing the work of Georges Seurat. He formed a close friendship with Seurat's follower, Paul Signac, and in the early 1890s produced a series of deceptively simple, light-filled and densely worked seascapes as van Rysselberghe and Signac travelled and painted together.

A distinctive feature of his work is the clusters of white dots sprinkled across the picture surface, as here, which give his paintings an animated, almost dancing quality. The dots also often form swirling decorative patterns, as in this work.

Van Rysselberghe 西奥·凡·莱西尔伯格 (1862 - 1926)

比利时画家

Van Rysselberghe was at the heart of the Brussels art world during the brief period in the late nineteenth century when the Belgian capital was a leading centre for the display of international avant-garde art. He was a founding member of 'Les Vingt', the influential exhibition society, and travelled widely to see exhibitions and meet artists.

His early paintings were influenced by the French Impressionists and Whistler. In Paris in 1886, however, he saw the Post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat's monumental 'Sunday Afternoon on the Ile de la Grande Jatte' (Art Institute of Chicago) and recognised the significance of the pointillist style. Van Rysselberghe adopted the style himself, becoming the leader of the Belgian pointillists, until he gave it up in 1904.