He studied under Cormon. Anquetin was interested in Impressionism, then in Signac's theories; towards 1888 his painting became Synthetist. His studies are of the same nature as Emile Bernard's (Portrait of an Actor, Woman in the Street). Cloisonnism seems to have evolved following exchanges between Anquetin and Bernard. In 1889 Anquetin took part in the Symbolist and Synthetist exhibition at the Cafe Volpini, in the Exposition universelle, then in the Nabist exhibition of 1891 at Le Barc de Boutteville, and lastly in the second Symbolist exhibition presented by Ch. Ceseaulx. In 1892 he also exhibited his work at Durand-Ruel with the Rosicrucian painters. In Du Symbolisme au Classicisme, Theories, Maurice Denis speaks of Anquetin
in these terms: "Anquetin was absorbed by anatomy and by scientific exactitude in painting. He was, of course, right to deplore the ignorance of the recent generations, devoid of the technical instruction which used to be given in the studio. But life gradually withdrew from his painting and in the end he was merely repeating formulae consecrated by centuries of admiration .... Both Anquetin and Bernard, the audacious initiators of Synthetism, completely renounced their former manner and took pains to present their latest evolution as a return to museum tradition. "

Post-Impressionism, Michel-Claude Jalard, Edito Service SA, Geneva