Georges Seurat Biography |
| May 03 2011 |
| {Articles >> Art History - Artists} |
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| Georges Seurat by Marie Schneider taken April 1884 |
Georges Seurat, a prolific French Post-Impressionist artist of the 19th century, is best known for his Pointillist works. His A sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886 is probably his most famous work. Born in 1859 in Paris, Seurat died in 1891 before he was thirty-two. Despite his short career, he produced a large oevre, some of which (like Grande Jatte) have become iconic works of the 19th century. His system of color placement to create new colors when viewed from a distance, Pointillism, is also called "divisionism."
He was born to a financially comfortable family. As a young man he attended l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Very early on is his painting career, he found his own personal style, despite his young age. Like many of his contemporaries, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Seurat was not accepted by the mainstream Paris art salons.
Seurat combined the experimental, avant garde approach of Impressionism with classical theories from the Renaissance. The Grande Jatte is highly experimental, and while we are used to seeing it now, in the 21st century, would have been controversial in the 19th. However, it also uses classical methods. Figures are arranged to give the illusion of perspective; gesture is used as a formal element to guide the viewer around the picture plane; subtle play of light and shadow give enhance the illusion of three-dimensional form. And unlike some Impressionist works, which were created on the spot, en plein air, Grande Jatte was planned with dozens of drawings and color sketches.
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| Georges Seurat, Portrait d'Edmond Aman-Jean, 1883 via Wikimedia Commons |
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| Georges Seurat, Parade de Cirque, 1887-8 via Wikimedia Commons |
One of his last works, The Circus is a departure from his usual style, and may show an influence from his contemporary Paul Signac.
Although Seurat is certainly the most well-known of pointillism artists, you can see pointillism in the works of Paul Signac and Camille Pissarro.
Other useful links for Georges Seurat biographies
Georges Seurat Biography at Renoirinc
The Complete Works of Georges Seurat
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| Georges Seurat, Le Cirque, 1891 via Wikimedia Commons |