French painter, 1859–1891
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was painted from 1884 to 1886 and is Georges Seurat's most famous work. It is recognised as a leading example of pointillist technique and as a founding work of the neo-impressionist movement.
Seurat's painting was a mirror impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in the shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. Interpretation →
Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and concentrating on issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) in size. Background →
Seurat painted the La Grande Jatte in three distinct stages. In the first stage, which was started in 1884, he mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. Painting materials →
Bathers at Asnières is an 1884 oil on canvas painting by the French artist Georges Pierre Seurat, the first of his two masterpieces on the monumental scale. The canvas is of a suburban, placid Parisian riverside scene. Isolated figures, with their clothes piled sculpturally on the riverbank, together with trees, austere boundary walls and buildings, and the River Seine are presented in a formal layout.
The spot depicted is just short of four miles from the centre of Paris. In fact, the figures on the river-bank are not in the commune of Asnières, but in Courbevoie, the commune bordering Asnières to the west. Location →
Seurat used a variety of means to suggest the baking heat of a summer’s day at the riverside. A hot haze softens the edges of the trees in the middle-distance and washes out colour from the bridges and factories in the background—the blue of the sky at the horizon is paled almost to whiteness. Aesthetic →
At the time of this painting, urban development in Paris was proceeding at a very rapid pace. The population of Paris had doubled from one million in 1850 to two million in 1877, and the population of Asnières had almost doubled in just ten years to reach 14,778 in 1886. Seurat’s suburb →
Models, also known as The Three Models and Les Poseuses, is a work by Georges Seurat, painted between 1886 and 1888 and held by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Models was exhibited at the fourth Salon des Indépendants in spring of 1888.
Georges-Pierre Seurat was the third child of Ernestine Faivre and Antoine-Chrysostome Seurat. He was born in Paris on 2 December 1859 into a bourgeois family. Seurat's life →
Models is a notable example of Pointillism, which refers to painting through a series of colored dots that together make up an image, although Seurat's preferred to call it Chromo-luminarism. In an article written by Norma Broude in the Art Bulletin, she compares Pointillism to photo printing in the 1880s France. Pointillism and color theory →
Seurat painted two versions of Les Poseuses. The smaller of the two is more in accord with the divisionism technique that Seurat had invented, and favoured by Seurat specialists. Les Poseuses →
Parade de cirque is an 1887–88 Neo-Impressionist painting by Georges Seurat. It was first exhibited at the 1888 Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris, where it became one of Seurat's least admired works. Parade de cirque represents the sideshow of the Circus Corvi at place de la Nation, and was his first depiction of a nocturnal scene, and first painting of popular entertainment.
Circus Sideshow is a large oil painting on canvas measuring 99.7 × 149.9 centimetres (39.3 × 59.0 in). Painted in the Divisionist style, the work employs pointillist dots of color (primarily violet-gray, blue-gray, orange, and green) and a play of lines governed by rules whose laws Seurat had studied. Description →
By 1904 Neo-Impressionism had evolved considerably, in a move away from nature, away from imitation, toward the distillation of essential geometric shapes and harmonious movements. These forms were considered superior to nature because they contained idea, representing the dominance of the artist over nature. Influence →
Young Woman Powdering Herself is an oil on canvas painting executed between 1889 and 1890 by the French painter Georges Seurat. Considered a leading example of pointillism, it is Seurat’s only single-subject portrait and depicts his mistress, Madeleine Knobloch, sitting at her dressing table.
Young Woman Powdering Herself is a portrait of Madeleine Knobloch, Seurat's mistress. Art historians believe Knobloch was pregnant with their son, Pierre-Georges Seurat, when this portrait was painted due to her larger size and fullness. Background →
The composition centers on Madeleine Knobloch, seated in front of a small table. Her tight corset and full skirt accentuate her voluptuous figure, which most likely reflects her pregnancy. Subject matter →
Seurat employs the pointillist method to construct Young Woman Powdering Herself. Using what he referred to as “my method,” he applies paint in small dots that blend together in an optical fusion of colors. Technique and interpretation →
Le Chahut is a Neo-Impressionist painting by Georges Seurat, dated 1889–90. It was first exhibited at the 1890 Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris. Chahut became a target of art critics, and was widely discussed among Symbolist critics.
Chahut was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, 20 March–27 April 1890, eclipsing his other large entry: Jeune femme se poudrant (Young Woman Powdering Herself), to which critics at the time paid little attention. Reception →
Le Chahut is an oil painting on canvas measuring 170 by 141 cm (67 x 55 in). Seurat employed a Divisionist style, with pointillist dots of color. Description →
Chahut (literally meaning noise or uproar) is an alternative name for the can-can, a provocative, sexually charged dance that first appeared in the ballrooms of Paris around 1830. The style of dance caused a scandal due to the high kicks and other gestures of the arms and legs. Background →
The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe is a pointillist painting by French artist Georges Seurat, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. Painted in 1890, the year before his death, it depicts a harbor in the small French port of Gravelines. Described as "wistful and poetic," it is one of the treasures of the IMA.
As one of Seurat's final paintings, The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe demonstrates beautifully the principles of Seurat's own Neo-Impressionist movement. His systematic application of dots in colors carefully chosen according to laws of chromatic harmony results in unparalleled luminosity. Description →
While he spent most of the year shocking Paris with his novel style and views, Seurat spent his summers painting wistful seascapes. In 1890, he traveled to the tiny port of Gravelines, near the Belgian border, and painted what would be his last four landscapes. Historical information →
The painting was donated by Caroline Marmon Fesler in 1945 to the Herron School of Art in memory of her parents, Daniel W. and Elizabeth C. Marmon. Acquisition →
The Circus is an oil on canvas painting by Georges Seurat. It was his last painting, made in a Neo-Impressionist style in 1890–91, and remained unfinished at his death in March 1891. The painting is located at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Le Cirque was first exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in March 1891, in an unfinished state. The work remained unfinished at Seurat's death a few days later: in places, the white ground and a grid of blue lines used by Seurat to create his composition are still visible. Reception →
The work measures 185 × 152 centimetres (73 × 60 in) (dimensions with frame painted by the artist: 232 x 198.5 cm). Seurat used a Neo-Impressionist Divisionist style, with pointillist dots creating the sense of other colours. Description →
The painting was Seurat's third major work treating the theme of the circus, after his Parade (Circus sideshow) of 1887–88 and Le Chahut of 1889–90. It depicts a female performer standing on a horse at the Circus Fernando (renamed the Circus Médrano in 1890, after its most famous clown). Background →
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