Georges Seurat (1859–1891)
Author of Sunday with Seurat (Mini Masters)
About the Author
Works by Georges Seurat
Seurat 12 copies
Afternoon at La Grande Jatte [image] 4 copies
Seurat and His Friends: A loan exhibition...for the benefit of the Scholarship Fund of L'Alliance Française de New… (1953) 2 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1859-12-02
- Date of death
- 1891-03-29
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- France
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Places of residence
- Paris, France
- Education
- École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Brest Military Academy - Occupations
- painter
draughtsman
Members
Reviews
Lists
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 31
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 382
- Popularity
- #63,245
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 31
- Languages
- 3
Seurat had a number of important influences, including the contemporary Impressionists, but perhaps the most significant were not artists but scientists. He absorbed all the latest theories of colour and used them to develop the extraordinary effects of Pointillism - paintings composed entirely of dots of colour - usually of unmixed, single pigment paints, relying on proximity of dots and distance of the observer to create mixed colours in the eye, which the science had demonstrated gave a brighter, less muddy colour effect.
Oddly, his genius was better recognised during his lifetime than in the immediate aftermath: Thirty or so years after his death, The Metropolitan Museum of Art turned down the purchase of one of his greatest works - it was bought instead by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it still hangs. Now, of course, he's considered to have been exceptional and a sad loss, dying young, but leaving a huge impact on the development of Western art - the second step towards Abstract art after the original Impressionists. It's a pity that no sane format of book can ever really do justice to the Pointillist technique when fully reproducing even modestly sized paintings, but this gives you an idea - go see the real things if you ever have opportunity.… (more)