French painter Paul Signac (1863-1935) was one of the leading figures of Neo-Impressionism, the school of painters that followed the Impressionists. The extraordinary quality and quantity of his artistic work, which included oils, watercolors, etchings, lithographs, and pen-and-ink pointillism, was matched by the breadth of his interests as a writer and, toward the end of his life, his deep opposition to fascism.

Paul Victor-Jules Signac was born in Paris on November 11, 1863. His father, Jules Jean-Baptiste Signac, was a harness and saddle maker, as was his grandfather. Signac's mother was Héloïse Anaïs-Eugénie (Deudon) Signac. The Signac family lived above the shop run by his father. As a child Signac was described as delicate and high strung by his father. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) he was sent to northern France to live with his maternal grandmother and her second husband. By...