Art & Impressionism

Neo-classicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity (Greece and Rome) inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. A return to the study of science, history, mathematics, and anatomical correctness abounded, replacing the Rococo vanity culture and court-painting climate that preceded. Neoclassicism adopted the hierarchy of painting that was established by the French Royal Academy of the Arts in 1669. History painting, which included subjects from the Bible, classical mythology, and history, was ranked as the top category, followed by portraiture, genre painting, landscapes, and still lifes. This hierarchy was used to evaluate works submitted for the French Salon or for prizes like the illustrious Prix de Rome.

Neo-impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded in the post-impressionist work of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and their followers who, inspired by optical theory, painted using tiny adjacent dabs of primary colour to create the effect of light. Seurat's best-known artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,  was regarded as the beginning of the movement. Seurat and his followers were characterized by regular dots and blocks in their artworks. The Pointillist and Divisionist techniques are dominant at the beginning of Neo-Impressionism