At the Café-concert 1888

Lucien Pissarro painted this scene of a Parisian café-concert using the pointillist technique. Look closely and you'll see that the entire image is composed of tiny dots of pure color. The application of these dots, with their optical blending, was incredibly labor-intensive. This method isn't just about aesthetics; it's about ideas, rooted in scientific theories of perception, and a belief in the power of systematic work. Consider the context: late 19th-century France, a time of rapid industrialization and social change. Pointillism can be seen as a response to the perceived chaos of modern life, a way to bring order and structure to the world through the application of method. The painting captures a moment of leisure, but the very act of creating it reflects a different kind of labor, one that elevated craft to the level of high art. In the end, the artist’s technique is a lens through which we can better understand the social and intellectual concerns of the time.