Pointillism is painting with small dots of pure colour that blend in the eye.
Pointillism (also called Divisionism or Chromoluminarism) is a technique in which small, distinct dots of pure colour are applied to the canvas and blend optically in the viewer's eye rather than being physically mixed on the palette. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the approach in the 1880s, drawing on scientific colour theory — particularly Ogden Rood's Modern Chromatics (1879) — which argued that optical mixing produces more luminous results than pigment mixing. Seurat spent two years on A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86), covering its entire surface with millions of tiny, carefully considered dots. The technique requires extraordinary patience and produces results that vibrate with an unusual, almost electrical light. It directly influenced Fauvism and, through Signac's influence on Matisse, the entire 20th-century tradition of colour as feeling.