1. A 19th-century movement in painting: Neoimpressionism, favoring stricter and more formal techniques of composition than impressionism, was initiated mainly by the pointillist Georges Seurat in the 1880s.
2. An art movement in French paintings: Neoimpressionism used the doctrines and methods of a group of artists of the 19th century which were based on a more strictly formal practice of impressionist technique employing tiny dots of primary colors on a white background.