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Georges-Pierre Seurat
(1859-1891)
La Chahut
La Tracheron
Georges-Pierre
Seurat was born on December 2, 1859, in Paris, France.
He is considered the father of Neo-Impressionism, and
the painting technique which came to be known as
pointillism or divisionism.
Seurat studied in 1878 and 1879 at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts under a disciple of Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres. Seurat himself was heavily influenced by
Francisco de Goya and Rembrandt.
After a year of service to the Brest Military Academy,
Seurat studied black and white drawing. He exhibited the
drawing, Aman-Jean, at the official Salon in 1883; but,
when panels from his 79x118 ½-inch painting, Une
Baignade, Asnières ("Bathing at Asnieres"), were
rejected by the Salon the following year, he and other
artists founded the Societe des Artistes Independants.
Seurat's most well-known painting, Un dimanche
après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte ("Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte"), was the centerpiece
of the Society's first show.
Seurat's paintings were considered a departure from much
of the other art of his time because he was one of the
first to use scientific principles to create
aesthetically-pleasing works. Seurat was familiar with
the writings of scientists such as Eugene Chevreul,
Ogden Rood and David Sutter, who wrote about the effects
of color on optical perception. Chevreul was among the
first to explain that, when certain contrasting colors
were placed in close proximity to one another, or even
overlapped, the human eye perceives a third color when
viewed from a distance. Seurat first began experimenting
with this concept in "Bathing", using, short, dotted
dabs of pure color (this style became known as
pointillism or divisionism), rather than mixing colors
on the palette or on the canvas and using longer
strokes, as was the Impressionist style. While most
Impressionist painters completed their works as a whole
(often even in one sitting), Neo-Impressionists like
Seurat and his followers painstakingly planned out each
inch of canvas. His largest work, "La Grande Jatte",
took over a year to complete.
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte
Not much was known of
Seurat's personal life during his short lifetime. After
his death, it was discovered he had a child by his
mistress, Madeline Knoblock. Knoblock was the model for
the piece, "Young Woman Powdering Herself". Seurat's own
mother only met his mistress and child the day before he
died of diphtheria, on March 29, 1891, at the age of 31.
Young Woman Powdering Herself
Seurat created seven
large pieces, 60 smaller works, and numerous drawings
and sketchbooks. His seminal work, the 81x120-inch
"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", is
housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1984, Stephen
Sondheim created a musical, Sunday in the Park with
George, inspired by the painting and Seurat's life.
