[Rarebooks] Uncommon 1910 Work on Modern Art Principles

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Previati, Gaetano.  LES PRINCIPES SCIENTIFIQUES DU DIVISIONNISM (La
Technique de la Peinture).

Paris; A. Grubicy: 1910.

The French edition of Previati’s important work on the scientific
foundations of Divisionism, first published in Turin in 1906.

Gaetano Previati (1852-1920), “was one of the leading exponents of
Divisionism, particularly skilled at large-scale decorative themes, and
especially important for his writings on technique and theory” (Aurora
Scotti Tosini –Grove Dictionary of Art). Divisionism (the term was coined
by Paul Signac) was a controversial European school which followed the
rules of color contrast formulated by Ogden Rood and Michel-Eugene
Chevruel, and applied color in separate threads and dots “to produce
maximum brilliance scientifically and to avoid the muddling caused by
physically mixing colours before applying them to the canvas...at a
distance, the colours enhance each other to produce an effect of
shimmering luminosity” (Tosini).

Previati was fascinated by the ways color and tones could be used to
produce visual and emotional effects on a picture’s viewer, and fell in
happily with the Divisionists, producing murals and other large works
which have been compared to the works of Walter Crane and G.F. Watts. As
Tosini notes-

“For Previati technique was not just a question of practice; it was an
instrument for improving not so much the physical vision as the inner,
spiritual contemplation of the great ideals that must find a place in
painting. He identified three major stages in technique: impasto
(application of paint), velatura (unification of tone), and divisione dei
toni (‘division’, or separation of tones). In this series it is clear that
the last is superior to the others; not only is it based on physical facts
that can be scientifically shown to produce results with a greater
potential for exploiting light, but it also successfully achieves a truth
very different from a mere copy of reality. It enables the painter to
attain a diffuse luminosity and a limitless vibrancy that pervade the
painting and cast a spell on the spectator”.

Although he was not hugely successful as a commercial artist, Previati
developed a network of supporters, among them the dealer Alberto Grubicy,
himself a staunch proponent of Divisionism. It may have been at Grubicy’s
urging that Previati wrote his book on the technical aspects of
Divisionist painting (Turin, 1905) and the scientific basis for the
Divisionist’s theories (Turin, 1906), of which this is the French
translation of the latter title, published in Paris by Grubicy himself
four years later in a translation by Rossi-Sachetti.

The contents of this treatise consist of- De la vision oculaire et de la
vision subjective; De la perception normale des couleurs; Des causes
determinant les couleurs; Des couleurs par absorption de la lumiere; Des
substances colorantes et des lumieres; Des variations des lumieres, des
reflets et des ombres; Regard retrospectif aux theories et a la technique
de la peinture; Des effets lumineux; Des couleurs complementaires; Du
contraste; Le mélange des couleurs sur la retine; Le divisionnisme.

An important document in turn of the century art theory, and rather
difficult to locate, in any edition, in the commercial marketplace.

Hardcover. 5.75”x9.25”, 329 pages, 90 text figures; bound into marbled
boards with a vellum spine; a handsome binding. Light wear, a little soil.
 [09480]  $250.00


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