Sources and genesis of neo-impressionism

This article examines the origins and genesis of the artistic principles of Neo Impressionism at the end of the 19th century. It is a common belief that the discovery of optical mixing, that is, the creation of a new color by placing pure colors as close as possible to each other, which later found its most vivid expression in Pointillism, is attributed exclusively to French visual art and its founder Georges Seurat. To clarify all the details surrounding the origins of the law of sympathetic response, the laws of contrast, and gradation, the article explores the work of earlier artists who came closest to discovering these artistic principles. As part of the study, a review of creative techniques and methods is conducted, ranging from the English Romanticism of John Constable with his remarkable «snowflakes» to the use of optical mixing by the French Romanticism representative Eugène Delacroix, and further, to the scientific studies in the field of color harmony by Georges Seurat, the founder of Pointillism, and the work of Paul Signac.