Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat built pictures out of countless dots of colour – painting as a science of light and colour.

Life

Born in Paris in 1859, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and read treatises on colour theory and optics. In 1884 he showed “Bathers at Asnières”, and in 1886, at the last Impressionist exhibition, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”, on which he had worked for two years. With Paul Signac he founded Neo-Impressionism. He died in 1891, aged only 31.

Style & technique

Seurat set pure colours side by side in small dots so that they mix only in the viewer’s eye – Pointillism. His compositions are rigorously planned, the figures as still as statues. Beforehand he made many studies and velvety drawings in Conté crayon on rough paper, without any outlines.

Look closely

  • The dots: zoom in – which colours sit side by side?
  • The stillness: figures in profile, as if frozen.
  • The drawings: forms emerge from light and dark alone, without line.

Timeline

  • 1859: Born in Paris.
  • 1884: “Bathers at Asnières”.
  • 1886: “La Grande Jatte” at the last Impressionist exhibition.
  • 1887–1888: “Circus Sideshow”.
  • 1891: Dies in Paris.

Works in the museum