Albert DUBOIS-PILLET
French 1846–90
The banks of the Seine at Neuilly 1886
(Les Bords de Seine à Neuilly)
oil on canvas
59.0 x 81.6 cm
Collection of Lenora and Walter F Brown, San Antonio, Texas
Photo: Steven Tucker

Albert Dubois-Pillet, twelve or more years senior to most members of the Parisian Neo-Impressionist group, was a professional soldier who had seen considerable active duty during the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. A self-taught painter who had his work regularly rejected by the Salon jury, Dubois-Pillet met Seurat and Signac in 1884, when the Indépendants first coalesced as an alternative exhibiting group. From 1886, he began to paint in the Neo-Impressionist mode of divided colours. His great personal charm enabled him to form close friendships with his fellow Neo-Impressionists, despite most of them holding strong pro-anarchist and anti-militarist views.