03 — ARTWORK
The Man at the Helm
RYSSELBERGHE, Théo van · 1892 →
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
- TYPE
- Landscape
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Musée d'Orsay
- FILE
- 1152 × 850 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe met Seurat and Signac in 1886 and adopted the pointillist style of painting developed by them. His painting shows a helmsman who is under way with his ship in high seas. By the division of the picture space the painter stresses the dramatic nature of this voyage. The sail takes up the upper left-hand corner, the man at the helm the lower right. Taut ropes cross the crest of a high wave and in this way bring in an additional dynamic element. On top of that there are the colour contrasts characteristic of pointillismPainting style that appeared in France toward the end of the nineteenth century. The technique of the Neo-Impressionists of applying pure colours next to each other in order to create the actual colour only from a distance through optical mixing in the eye of the beholder was declared to be the supreme principle in painting by Georges Seurat, who rigorously developed it further by applying unbroken colours next to each other in a strict pattern of points or commas. This new technique, called Divisionism by Seurat, was exhibited to the public for the first time in 1884 in Paris at an exhibition of the Indépendents..
OTHER WORKS BY THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r9b1fcf0a2836e2,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Man at the Helm by RYSSELBERGHE, Théo van},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/rysselberghe-tho-van-ra08868fabff8a3/the-man-at-the-helm-r9b1fcf0a2836e2},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.