pointillism

[pwan-tl-iz-uhm, -tee-iz-, poin-tl-iz-]

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a theory and technique developed by the neo-impressionists, based on the principle that juxtaposed dots of pure color, as blue and yellow, are optically mixed into the resulting hue, as green, by the viewer.

pointillism

/ -tiːˌɪzəm, ˈpwæntɪˌlɪzəm, ˈpɔɪn- /

noun

1. Also called: divisionism. the technique of painting elaborated from impressionism, in which dots of unmixed colour are juxtaposed on a white ground so that from a distance they fuse in the viewer's eye into appropriate intermediate tones

Other Word Forms

• pointillist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pointillism¹

1900–05; < French pointillisme, equivalent to pointill ( er ) to mark with points + -isme -ism

Word History and Origins

Origin of pointillism¹

C19: from French, from pointiller to mark with tiny dots, from pointille little point, from Italian puntiglio, from punto _point

Example Sentences

Pissarro soon gave up on pointillism, noting its conflict with the richness and spontaneity of Impressionism.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The fact that it was a parlor game, not pointillism, that inspired the lyric is proof of Sondheim’s credo that “playful doesn’t mean trivial any more than solemn means serious.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Autochromes possess the light-dappled depth of Impressionist paintings, the powdery precision of pointillism, the honest blushes of butterfly cheeks, and the palpable textures of gleaming silks and gilded velvets.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In these landscapes, naturalism and abstraction often battle to a pulsating draw by means of a magnified, or coarsened pointillism that recalls Seurat in its mosaic-like array of dots, dashes and commas.

Read more on New York Times

The paintings, done in a pointillism style, shimmered with the high-contrast pop of a flash photo or an instant Polaroid.

Read more on Washington Post