Artist Bio



Hippolyte Petitjean (1854 - 1929)

French painter Hippolyte Petitjean mastered the neo-Impressionist technique called pointillism. A close friend and colleague of Georges Seurat, who would also perfect his pointillist works, Petitjean had received a formal education at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Alexandre Cabanel.

His first Salon exhibition was in 1880, but upon his meeting with Seurat in 1884 his work would be forever changed. Petitjean met many of the neo-Impressionist painters through his acquaintance with Seurat. Petitjean would join their exhibitions, and enter his first major work in the style in 1887.

While he remained true to the theories of the pointillist technique he soon incorporated some styles of his own, adding soft brush work. His palette would create remarkable effects and he was soon crafting landscapes and figures with dots of pure color set against the brilliance of the blank background.

His works are in the collections of several major museums, including the museum of Burgundy and the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris.

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