Femme dans un jardin

A noted Neo-Impressionist painter, Hippolyte Petitjean was born on September 11, 1854 in Macon. In 1872 he went to Paris to continue his studies entering the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and also the atelier of Alexandre Cabanel. He exhibited at the Salon beginning in 1880. By far the most significant event in Petitjean’s development was meeting Seurat in 1884. Petitjean joined the Neo-Impressionist group in 1886, and in 1887 he showed his first major work in this style. In 1891 he switched from the Salon to exhibit with the Independents. He also exhibited in Brussels in 1893 and 1898, Berlin in 1898, Weimar in 1903, and Wiesbaden in 1921. Petitjean remained loyal to Seurat’s optical theories along with Signac and Pissaro until after 1894 when he began to combine the pointillist dot with more feathery strokes. After 1910 he returned to a Neo-Impressionist manner in a series of decorative watercolours. These works depicted both landscapes and people with a remarkable shimmering effect created by individual spots of pure colour.