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Home , Les XX, Louis Hayet, Ludovic Piette

Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2014 Realism to Surrealism: European art and culture 1848-1936

Seurat and Neo-

Professor Anthea Callen

30/01 April/May 2014

Lecture summary:

This lecture examines the emergence of Neo-Impressionism through the prism of its principal exponent, (1859-1891), whose short life-span yet significant artistic production mirrors that of his colleague the Dutch painter (1853-1890).

It was the art critic Félix Fénéon who first coined the term ‘Neo-Impressionism’ to describe the paintings of Georges Seurat, , , and his son , shown at the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition in in 1886. In , where French Neo- Impressionism made its debut in 1887 at the exhibition of Les XX, Théo Van Rysselberghe adopted Seurat's idiosyncratic technique, as did other avant-garde artists. Following the early death of Seurat it was Signac who gave Neo-Impressionism its momentum: inheriting the so-called Divisionist banner he worked tirelessly in its support. It was Signac who introduced Seurat's system of color harmony to the vanguard critics and writers who would champion it, and published the influential treatise D'Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionisme (1899): an argument for Neo- Impressionism as the logical and legitimate successor to Impressionism. In Signac's own work, the rigor and restraint of his early paintings gave way to a bold and luxuriant palette in later years. After 1890 Camille Pissarro abandoned the pointillist method as too constraining.

Focusing on Seurat’s combination of innovation and tradition in his methods, the lecture outlines his conventional early development first under Julien Lequien at the Ecole Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin in Paris, and then between 1878 and November 1879 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Henri Lehman, a pupil of Ingres. Seurat combined the systematic methods he learned at the Ecole and through his espousal of the traditionalist ideas of art critic Charles Blanc (founder of the French art journal Gazette des Beaux-Arts) in his Grammaire des arts du dessin (1867, 1876), with a scientific formalisation of Impressionist colour theory. His career can be divided into three phases: the drawings; the first major paintings up to 1886; the final Neo-Impressionist period. We shall examine his extraordinarily systematic, almost obsessional approach to art through his drawing and painting techniques, looking especially at the play between plein air and studio work. The pristine brilliance of his tonal drawings will be considered a key structural component allied in painting to his Divisionist complementary colour and Pointillist touch. These in turn will be viewed as essential elements in conjunction with his modern, often banal subject matter in producing what he considered a radically democratic modern art.

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Slide list:

1 Cover slide 2 Anon., Photo of Seurat, c.1889? 3 Seurat, La Poudreuse, (Madeleine Knobloch). 1890, o/c. Courtauld Institute of Art (and Infra-red radiography image of same) 4 Seurat (French, 1859–1891) Portrait of Aman-Jean ( 1883) Conté crayon on paper; (31.2 x 24 cm) Metropolitan Museum New York 5 Signac: Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones, and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890, o/c, 29 x 36 1/2" (73.5 x 92.5 cm). MoMA New York 6 Seurat – Ascetic (Indian Beggar), c.1879. graphite on paper, Getty Museum 7 Seurat, Stonebreakers, Le Raincy, 1879-81. conté crayon on Ingres paper, 30.8 x 37.5 cm MoMA New York. 8 Seurat, Ragpicker, 1882-3. Black Conté on Ingres paper. Priv coll 9 Seurat, The Gateway, 1882-84, conté crayon on Ingres paper, 24.8 x 32.4 cm. Guggenheim Museum NY 10 Seurat, Landscape, Ile de France, 1882, o/c 32.5 x 40.5 cm(Portrait 6) Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, France 11 Pissarro, Plein air figure, or Peasant Digging, 1882. o/c private collection 12 Seurat, The Gardener, 1882-3, oil on panel 15.9 x 24.8 cm Metropolitan MoA New York 13 Seurat, Bathers, Asnières, 1883-84, o/canvas 201 x 300 cm. National Gallery London 14 Left: Seurat, Bathers, Asnières, 1883-4 (NG London) Right: Sunday Afternoon on the Ile de la Grande Jatte, 1884, o/c. 207.5 x 308.1cm 1884-86 (Art Institute of Chicago) 15 Seurat, Bathers final study, 1883, o/panel, 15.8 x 25.1cm Art Institute of Chicago 16 Seurat, Seated Nude. Study for Bathers, Asnières, Conté crayon on Michallet paper, 1883- 4, 31 x 24 cm. NG Scotland 17 *Seurat, Echo study for Bathers, Conté crayon on Michallet paper 31.2 x 24cm 1883-4 Yale University Art Gallery 18 Seurat, Hat, shoes, and undergarments- study, Bathers Conte crayon, 1883-4 23 x 31 Harvard Art Museum 19 Seurat, The Seine at Courbevoie, 1884. O/panel, 15.5 x 24.5cm. Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam 20 Seurat, Bathers, Asnières, 1883-84, o/canvas 201 x 300 cm. National Gallery London 21 *Pissarro, Landscape with Palette, c.1878. o/panel 24.1 x 34.6cm Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamston. 22 Charles Blanc: Colour Star, Grammaire des arts du dessin, 1867; Eugène Chevreul, Colour wheel, 1854. Louis Hayet: Colour Circle, 1885 23 Photo: Pissarro and Cézanne, c.1874 24 Ludovic Piette: Pissarro on the motif, Pontoise, c.1874 o/c, whereabouts unknown 25 Nineteenth-century portable painting equipment 26 Seurat, Riverman, 1883. Oil on panel, 15.5 x 25. Musée d’Orsay, Paris 27 Nineteenth-century prepared panels, cartons and canvas 28 Nineteenth-century French standard canvas formats 29 *Seurat, Le Bec du Hoc, study, Summer 1885.Oil on panel 15.6 x 25.2 cm NG Australia 30 Seurat, Le Bec du Hoc, Grandchamp, 1885, o/c, 65 x 82. (Portrait 25, on its side) Tate, London 31 Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa (first printed 1826/33); “Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji”, no.21 32 Nineteenth-century primed canvas samples, Bourgeois Aîné. Collection A Callen. Left – Toile demi-fine absorbante; Right – Ordinaire 1er qualité gris à grain 33 Left: Seurat: The Couple (Study for Le Grande Jatte), Conté crayon on Michallet paper, 1884-5 Right: Seurat – The Couple (Study for Le Grande Jatte), o/c 81 x 65 – grey ground - (c.1885) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 34 Seurat, Sailboat. Study for La Grande Jatte, 1884. Oil on unprimed panel 15.9 x 25 cm. NGA Washington 35 Seurat, Study – Landscape for the Grand Jatte, 1884,1885 (border added c.1889), o/c 69.9 x 85.7 cm: non-standard canvas format. The Steven and Alexandra Cohen Collection 36 Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Isle de la Grande Jatte, 1884-86. Oil on canvas, 207.5 × 308.1 cm (81.7 × 121.3 in). Art Institute of Chicago 37 *Seurat, Les Poseuses, 1886-88. oil/canvas 200 x 249.9 cm. Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia 38 Left: Seurat, Study-models. conté crayon. 29.7 x 22.5 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art Right: Seurat Study -models_oil on panel, 26 x 15.7 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris 39 *Seurat, Bridge at Courbevoie, oil/canvas (unprimed, unvarnished), Standard no.10 Portrait canvas: 55 x 46 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art Galleries, London 40 Pissarro, Charing Cross Bridge, 1890, O/c, 60 x 90 cm (an elongated horizontal marine format: ‘marine basse’, no.30). NGA Washington. 41 Seurat,, Le Chahut, 1889-90, oil on canvas, 171.5 x 140.5 cm (non standard cavas). Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 42 Seurat, The Eiffel Tower, 1889, o/panel. 24 x 15.2 cm. California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Reference:

Cogeval, Guy, et al, Masterpieces from Paris: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Canberra, 2009-10 (2009) Farr, Dennis, John House, Robert Bruce-Gardner, Gerry Hedley and Caroline Villers, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces: The Courtauld Collection, exh. cat., The Courtauld Institute Galleries, London (1987) Ferretti-Bocquillon, Marina, et al, Signac, 1863-1935 (New Haven, 2001) Hauptman, Jodi, Karl Buchberg, Hubert Damisch and Bridget Riley, Georges Seurat, The Drawings (New York, 2007) Herbert, Robert, Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte, exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago, (Berkeley, 2004) ----, Seurat: Drawings and Paintings (New Haven, 2001) Homburg, Cornelia, Paul Smith, Laura Corey, Simon Kelly, Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities (Washington, 2005) Kirby, Jo, Kate Stonor, Ashok Roy, Aviva Burnstock, Rachel Grout and Raymond White, ‘Seurat’s Painting Practice’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol.24 (London, 2003) Leighton, John and Richard Thomson, Seurat and the Bathers, exh. cat., National Gallery London (1997) Roslak, Robyn, Neo-Impressionism and Anarchism in Fin-de-siècle France: Paintings, Politics and Landscape (Farnham, 2007) Schaefer, Iris, Caroline von Saint-George, Katja Lawrentz, Painting Light: The Hidden Techniques of the Impressionists (Milan, 2008) ----, Caroline von Saint-George and Katja Lewerentz eds, ‘International Symposium at the Wallraf Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud Cologne: Latest research into painting techniques of Impressionists and Postimpressionists’, in Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, 22/2 (Munich, 2009) Smith, Paul, ed., Seurat Re-viewed: Refiguring Modernism (Penn State University Press, 2010) Ward, Martha, Pissarro, Neo-Impressionism, and the Spaces of the Avant-Garde (Chicago, 1996)

Images:

17 Seurat, Echo, study for Bathers, Asnières, Conté crayon on Michallet paper 31.2 x 24cm 83-4 Yale University Art Gallery

21 Camille Pissarro, Palette with Landscape, c.1878. o/panel 24.1 x 34.6cm Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamston

29 Seurat, Le Bec du Hoc, study, Summer 1885.Oil on panel 15.6 x 25.2 cm NG Australia

37 Seurat, Les Poseuses, 1886-88. oil/canvas 200 x 249.9 cm. Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

39 Seurat, Bridge at Courbevoie, 1886-87; oil/canvas (unprimed, unvarnished), standard format no.10 Portrait canvas: 55 x 46 cm. Courtauld Institute of Art Galleries, London