Banks of the Oise at Dawn

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Louis Hayet was an important, early practitioner of Neo-Impressionism, or Pointillism, the practice of applying small strokes or dots of paint so that from a distance the hues visually blend together and create an intense sensation of color and light. Notice the way in which Hayet painted the pale dawn sky—and its reflection in the River Oise—with strokes of pink, orange, blue, yellow, and green paint. When seen at a distance, the effect is of early morning, before the sun has fully risen. Hayet received considerable critical praise for his original idea of developing a Neo-Impressionist color chart that incorporates gray tones.