GeorgesPierre Seurat 18591891 Pointillism

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Georges-Pierre Seurat1859-1891Pointillism
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Self-Portrait 1880

• Born into a wealthy family, Seurat (sur-ot)
  showed early talent for drawing and attended the
  Ecole des Beaux Arts (eh-cole dee bo-art) in
  Paris, the best art school in France at the time
  (and still today).
• He was only 32 when he died and was really just
  at the start of his career.
• He trained in the traditional style of the day,
  but soon struck out on his own path.

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Pointillism

• At the time, there were a lot of developments in
  the understanding optics and perceptions.
• Scientists were figuring out the color wheel,
  which you have studied in art.
• The artists showed that when 2 primary colors are
  placed next to each other, they form a third
  color when seen at a distance.
• Seurat used this technique in his own art.

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La Parade 1889

• Seurat believed that the new color theories
  completely changed the world of art.
• He thought that an artist could create emotion
  based on the warmth of the color and the
  direction of the lines used in painting.
• He developed a way of painting called
  pointillism in which individual dots of color
  are applied to the canvas, with the eye doing the
  work to merge the colors as you move further away
  from the canvas.

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Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand Jatte
1886

• Seurats great masterpiece, this work is now in
  the Art Institute of Chicago. The canvas is
  huge--approximately 7 feet by 10 feet.
• It took him two years to paint, including many
  studies.
• Like his other works, this painting is comprised
  of many tiny dots and dashes of paint rather than
  traditional brushstrokes.

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Studies for Grand Jatte

• Each picture is composed of tiny dots of color
  placed precisely next to each other and layered
  to trick the eye.
• When you look at the paintings from a distance,
  they have all of the nuances and shading that
  Seurat intended.
• He prepared each section of the painting before
  moving on to paint the large canvas.

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Sunday Afternoon

• What do you see in the picture? Where is the
  monkey? Why do the ladies have umbrellas? Do
  your eyes move up and down (which he thought
  created happiness in a viewer) as you look at the
  painting? Does this look real to you?
• He painted a border as well, which gives a
  self-frame to the work, although its hard to see
  on the slide.

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The Bathers 1884

• Completed prior to the last painting, this one
  uses cooler colors and has more horizontal lines.
  What kind of feeling do you think Seurat wanted
  to create? Do you think the water is cold?
• Because his process was so labor intensive, it
  could take a long time to complete his canvases.

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La Chahut 1890

• One of his last paintings, this depicts a popular
  stage show of songs and dances. The ladies are
  dressed for the stageoffstage, ladies would
  have been expected to cover their legs.
• Are the lines vertical? The colors warm? What
  feeling does Seurat want you to feel?
• Can you identify the instruments in the orchestra?

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Young Lady Powdering Herself 1890

• Notice the self-painted border done in darker
  dots around the perimeter--many of his paintings
  have this detail.
• Are the lines mostly vertical or horizontal? What
  about the colors--cool or warm? Does the woman
  look happy?
• She is preparing for the day and has not yet put
  on her dress. What do you think of the
  difference between her solid shape and the
  delicacy of the flowers?
• The picture in the back is part of the influx of
  Japanese prints popular at the time.

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Eiffel Tower 1889

• Here you can see the application of the dots on
  the surface of the painting. The Eiffel Tower
  had been built recently and was only just
  becoming a symbol of Paris. Seurat painted it
  from one of the many bridges across the Seine.
• As with all of his work, look to see whether
  there are vertical lines and if the colors are
  warm. Here, hes trying to create a positive
  emotion about the tower.