Art Masterpiece: 5th Grade, Lesson 1 (September)

Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891)

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884 – 1886) Oil on Canvas, 6’ 10” x 10’ 1” - Art Institute of Chicago

Pronounced: Zhorzh Soo-rah Art Style: Pointillism and Neo-impressionism Art Terms: Color (Warm and Cool) Activity: Pointillist Landscape Medium: Tempera Paints

Meet the Artist  He was born in France, in 1859, to a family that supported his desire to be an artist. He received art schooling in Paris.  Initially rejected by the Impressionist artists of the day, he decided to associate with other artists and created a new style, Neo-impressionism. Neo-impressionists painted so that it was more orderly, more scientific whereas Impressionists painted in a manner that the painting was the image you see if you just took a quick look at it.  Eventually, his artwork was titled Pointillism (although he never cared for this title). In Pointillism, the artist uses dots or dashes to complete a picture. The paintings tend to look grainy, up close one would only see “points” or small dashes, from farther away and a picture emerges.  He used primary colors and created secondary colors by painting two colors very close to each other in small dots. Blue and red painted densely will appear purple.  His paintings were very large and he painted only a handful of complete paintings in his lifetime and 60 smaller paintings. He did sketch many others, though. This was in part due to his Neo-impressionism. He sought to make every inch of the canvas perfect. He sometimes took years to finish a pointing.  Seurat was only 26 when he first showed A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte at the eighth annual and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886.  He died at the age of 31 from what many believed to be diphtheria, a disease of the respiratory system that no longer affects us, largely due to vaccinations and improved living conditions and hygiene.

Art Style Pointillism  The artist uses small dots or stokes of paint to make up the pictures. From far away, these dots blend together to form the picture and give the impression of different colors as they blend together. Neo-impressionism  A late 19th century French art theory and practice characterized by an attempt to make impressionism more precise in form and the use of a pointillist painting technique. Founded by Georges Seurat the movement organized the system of applying separate colors to the surface so that the eye mixed the colors rather than the artist on his or her palette.

Art Terms Color (Warm and Cool)  Warm colors come forward toward the eye and cool colors recede or fall into the distance. Think of the sun for warm colors – Red, Yellow, Orange. Think of distant hills or a snowy day for cool colors – Green, Blue, Violet.

Questions about A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte  What size do you think this painting is? (6’ 10” x 10’ 1”)  What colors do you see? Are they cool colors or warm colors? (Warm Colors include Red, Yellow, Orange. Cool Colors include Blue, Green, Violet)  What is happening in the painting?  Is it realistic or dreamy, or both?  How does it look when you are right in front of it, and when sitting at the tables? (Have students look at the print up-close and then again sitting down)

Activity Pointillist Landscape – Tempera Paints

Supplies White drawing paper – 9” x 6” Tempera paints - red, yellow, blue, green, brown, black Paint trays (2 students can share one tray) Cotton swabs Pencils Paper towels (located by the sink) *Additional support materials – more examples of Pointillism by Seurat **Note to Art Guide** Students with make only dots to create their art, no lines or “paint strokes” with the cotton swabs. You might need to remind them of this throughout the lesson.

Directions 1. Have students write their name and room # on the back of the paper. 2. Lightly sketch a landscape scene with a pencil. 3. Use cotton swabs to create small dots. DO NOT MIX colors. 4. Students can us a paper towel to practice making different sizes of dots before the start on their artwork. . To make a small dot, press lightly, press harder to make a large dot. . To get a tiny dot, remove the cotton and use the end of the swab. . To lighten a color, use a small dot and space them further apart allowing more of the white paper to show around them. . To darken a color, use a small dot of black beside it. 5. All of the paper should be covered with dots of color. 6. When the students are done have them title their artwork. Write the title on a label sticker and place it on the back of their work.

Lesson Sample

*Additional Support Material 8 ½” x 11” printout of this image will be available in the supply bin.

You can project the images on the pull down screen one of two ways: use the overhead projector and printouts in the supply bin or the teacher can bring up the images located on the school computer.

*La Parade (1889)

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The art print for The Circus (1891) is located in the print cabinet along with A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

The Circus (1891)