Announcing..... The Gallery's Favorite Artist.
One of our favorite artists here at the gallery, is Georges Seurat. He, along with Paul Signac, is known as the founder of neoimpressionalism. Suerat was born on Dec. 2, 1859 in Paris, France. Although he studied at the E'cole des Beaux-Arts school, he didn't like the style of the immpressionist painters, who mixed colors and gently dabbed them on paper.
The development of pointillism.
He wanted a more solid effect, so he used small dots "points" of primary colors placed in various concentrations to form pictures. If he wanted to make green, for example, dots of blue, would be placed near dots of yellow. From a distance, the eye combines the two to form green.
The artist and the scientist.
Seurat was both an artist and a scientist. He developed his artistic style, by studying the latest scientific developments on optics. He knew that the human eyes would combine the colors to form one.
He also knew that by applying these "dots" precisely one on top of the other he could almost "sculpt" the picture. Thereby giving the viewer a sense of the depth of the scene.
Subjects.
His scenes, like his impressionalist predecesors, were mostly gatherings, such as picnics and outings. Some of his better known works are listed below.
Bathers (1884, Tate Gallery, London) A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86, Art Institute, Chicago) The Models (1888, Barnes Collection, Philidelphia) The Side Show (1889, Stephen Clark Collection) The Circus (1890, Louvre, Paris)