pointillistn.adj.
/ˈpɔɪntᵻlɪst/, /ˈpwãtᵻjɪst/, U.S. /ˈpɔɪn(t)l̩əst/, /ˈpwɑn(t)l̩əst/ A. n.
An artist who employs the method or style of pointillism.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [noun] > neo-Impressionism or pointillism > artist
pointillist1891
tachist1891
neo-impressionist1892
divisionist1901
1891 Academy 6 June 544/3 ‘Impressionists’, ‘tâchistes’, ‘plein airistes’, and ‘pointillistes’, to use the jargon of the day.
1892 Mag. of Art p. xxxv/1 Among the painters who devote themselves to the application of colour in minute subdivision—called pointillistes, which may be freely rendered stipplers—the most conspicuous were M. Signac and M. Van Rysselberghe.
1899 Daily News 30 May 9/3 Of the Seasons by the pointillist Pissarro, ‘L'Automne’ is the most realistic and spacious.
1916 A. Bennett Lion's Share xii. 93 Also she was acquainted with the names and styles of all known modern painters from pointillistes to cubistes.
1954 W. Lewis Demon of Progress i. v. 23 The theory was that the colours would mix in the eye of the spectator—they must never be allowed to mix anywhere else... The Pointillistes adhered most rigidly to this rule.
1993 Artist's & Illustrator's Mag. Dec. 20/1 Take a leaf out of the book of the pointillists, who use stippling as a colour-mixing technique.
B. adj.
1. Of, characteristic of, or employing the method or style of pointillism.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [adjective] > neo-Impressionist or pointillist
pointillist1902
neo-impressionist1905
pointillistic1922
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 414/1 There are several fallacies however, theoretical and practical, in this ‘spectral palette’ and pointillist method.
1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! i. 25 The methods of the pointillist painters have something in common with the use of the orchestra as displayed in Debussy's works.
1940 O. Sitwell Left Hand, Right Hand! ii. 132 Those figures, full of latent movement, seen in a pointillist picture.
1971 Listener 4 Mar. 274/1 Pointillist or divisionist in detail.
1993 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Aug. e1/4 She's left the Seurat-like, pointillist style in which she was working for several years and is now doing paintings with much more drawing in them.
2. In extended use.
ΚΠ
1911 L. Hourticq Art in France iii. iii. 427 Toulouse, that ‘Pointillist’ city, built of little bricks, and paved with little stones.
1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! i. 46 This pointillist orchestration gives to many of Schönberg's works an impressionist effect in performance that an inspection of the score with the eye alone would hardly lead one to expect.
1959 Observer 14 June 24/3 Although its style was largely pointilliste, the music did not strike me as derivative.
2002 Mojo Feb. 19/3 Yokota's ambient LPs..bulge with pointillist whirls of sound, lovingly teased from threads of guitar and electric piano.
Derivatives
pointiˈllistic adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [adjective] > neo-Impressionist or pointillist
pointillist1902
neo-impressionist1905
pointillistic1922
1922 H. Crane Let. 19 Apr. (1965) 84 All this talk of Matty's is..metallic and pointillistic.
1954 Grove's Dict. Music (ed. 5) IX. 226/1 His [sc. Webern's] next compositions..are still more highly concentrated, still more transparent and pointillistic in texture.
1991 Sci. Amer. July 82/3 The pilot's most challenging cognitive task is to make sense of the pointillistic blips from on-board radar.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1891