Seurat 597

Mention George's Seurat's name and the first thing that comes to mind

is his "pointillism" his painted pictures of divided color. His Applying paint in

regular small strokes giving a picture a look of national order and a new Neo-

Impressionism style.

Seurat had been born on December 2, 1859 to Ernestine Faivre, and

Antoine Seurat. Seurat was the third child in the family. While attending

school, Seurat took a course from a sculptor Justin Lequin. In November

1879, Seurat went to Brest to do his military service. While there he drew

beaches, seas, and boats. In 1883, Seurat began Une baignade, Asnieres or a

s its called now "The Bathers". Seurat did many study paintings for the

peace, including "the Riverbanks", "Rainbow", "The Black Horse", "Bathers

in The Water", "Seated Bather" ,and finally "the Study for "the Bathing

Place, Asnieres". When he submitted his painting to the official Salon in early

spring 1884, it was rejected for reasons unknown.

In 1884 Seurat issued another painting Une dimanche a la Grande

Jatte or translated "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte".

Seurat made twenty-seven drawings, twenty-seven panels, and three canvases

relating to the final product. When a viewer gets close to La Grande Jatte the

brushwork appears quite varied and animated. The strokes vary from small

dots. On the tree trunk the marks change direction and move outward on the

branches. The strokes follow the imagined reality of the figures, flowing

outward for curves and hips, vertically for upright torsos, and follow the

direction of legs. When the painting is viewed from affair the brushwork

appears in uniform. Seurat found out that when he put dots of blue beside

dots of yellow they looked green from far away. Seurat also found out that

when he added the complementary color the object became alive with color

that shimmered, glistened, and glowed.

In 1885 Seurat spent several weeks painting sea scapes along the

Channel coast staying in Grandcamp. Seurat only made six paintings and

only considered one of them finished "boats corner of a harbor".

In 1886 Seurat finished Poseuses. This painting was Seurat's nudes.

This was Seurat's last composition on the grand scale of the Baignade and La

Grande Jette. The figures in the piece are said to be of the same person, since

the proportion is the same. Seurat again made many sketches and painting

relating to the final piece.

In 1886 Seurat's work became focused on the night scene. Seurat

painted cafes, concerts, fairgrounds, and circuses. On February of 16, 1890

his mistress Madeleine Knobloch who was 21, presented him a son, whom he

named Pierre-Georges Seurat. During that year Seurat completed Le Chahut

which was of a night club scene with men and woman dancing. Seurat's

second to last painting was the Jeune Femme se poudrant which was a

portrait of his mistress. The portrait gave his mistress a Goddesses like

appearance in which made her look huge. Seurat had a second child with

Madeleine but shortly died after birth.

Seurat's final work was Le Cirque which was a painting of a circus

scene. the picture shared the same elements as of the Chahut in that both had

an audience and performers. Seurat used a grid technique in order to blow up

the smaller compositions in which he had drawn.

On Easter Sunday 1891, Seurat died of infectious angina. Shortly after

Seurat's son , Pierre-Georges Seurat contracted his father's illness and died

on April 13, 1891. Seurat was once asked If his work was done

mechanically? Seurat replied "No, Monsieur, by hand".