Who? Georges Seurat, French (1859-1891) What? Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (oil on canvas, 6’ 9” x 10’) When? 1884-1886 Where is it now? The Art Institute of Chicago Why is this artist/artwork important? This painting represents the new “scientific” method of painting known as Pointillism that Seurat developed as a way of moving beyond Impressionism. The painting is entirely made up of small dots of color, which blend together when seen from a distance. Seurat’s new form of Impressionism, known as Neo-Impressionism was part of the larger movement of Post-Impressionism. Information Sheet for Georges Seurat (1859-1891) --Born in Paris in 1859. Seurat’s parents were wealthy and felt art, culture and sCienCe were important --As a kid, Seurat visited lots of museums --When he was 19 years old, he was admitted to FranCe’s top art sChool (Ecole des Beaux Arts) --He was fantastic at drawing and copying other works of art, but bored --See Image sheet for examples (Portrait of Aman-Jean shows his childhood friend, whom he went to art sChool) --Other artists, who were not at the school ,were doing exciting and new things --this was the time of The Impressionists (Some of the Classes may have studied Monet already) Briefly: The Impressionists were interested in representing Modern Life—what was going on in the world around them. They turned away from serious subjeCts from history and looked at the everyday lives and leisure activities of people around them. --They also wanted to make their piCtures look modern by developing new teChniques: they painted outdoors in order to capture the light effects of a single moment in time, they used short and rapid brushstrokes to give a sense of a brief impression. Seurat saw their art and was interested in some ideas of the Impressionists, but he was really interested in new sCientifiC ideas (Lots of new theories in Chemistry, physiCs, math). --He was espeCially interested in Color theories (sCientists experimenting with what happens if you put different colors next to each other—can you make them appear brighter, do your eyes mix Colors—blue next to yellow does your eye see the color green? Putting Complementary Colors next to each other—Red & Green, Blue and Orange, Yellow and Purple makes the eye see gray). Seurat wanted to apply scientific ideas to this new kind of painting. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) --What is the subjeCt of the painting? Who is there? What are they doing? --typiCal Impressionist subjeCt—the loCation was a popular spot for Parisian to go to relax on weekends. Women wearing up-to-date clothes --DifferenCe from Impressionists—not done on the spot, spent a long time making drawings and color sketches ahead of time, studying the colors and light See Image Sheet for SketChes of the Painting: --What colors do you see? --Not doing dots yet in these paintings, beComes more systematiC in the final work. The Final Version: --Seurat applied the paint in small dots (points) of individual Colors next to each other. You need to stand baCk from the piCture in order to see the shapes, figures and spaCes in the image. If you stand too Close, all you see are dots. --The eye is supposed to blend the dots together and make the Colors brighter. --This new method of painting was known as Pointillism (Seurat preferred the term divisionism, beCause it involved dividing Colors into Component parts) --It took Seurat two years to make the painting. It is really big (6’ 9” x 10’) and takes up the whole side of a room at The Art Institute of ChiCago, where it now is. --So interested in the effects of color that he even painted a pointillist frame. Why do you think he did this? --The eye could adjust to the transition from inside the painting to the white frame, whiCh he speCially designed for the painting Ask about differenCes from Impressionism: Compared to a Monet (The Frog Pond, 1869 shows a similar subjeCt) --Figures are muCh larger, standing still --Seurat tries to make his sCene look frozen in time—Figures in profile, uses simplified shapes and props whiCh he repeats (umbrellas, women sitting) This new “sCientifiC,” slow and studied approaCh to painting was termed Neo- Impressionism (New Impressionism). Later on, a CritiC plaCed it in the Category of Post-Impressionism (whiCh at that time—1905—referred to all art created after the Impressionists. Seurat died in 1891. He was very young—32 years old. Related Websites: www.theartstory.org/artist-seurat-georges.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat www.georgesseurat.org/ Books: Mike Venezia, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists: Georges Seurat. Children’s Press, 2002. Images for Georges Seurat Photograph of Seurat, 1888 Seurat, “Portrait of the Artist Arman-Jean,” 1882-3 (example of Seurat’s drawing skills) Seurat, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884-6 Seurat Painting on Display at the Art Institute of ChiCago—to see the sCale of the work Claude Monet, “The Frog Pond,” 1869 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC) Seurat, Study for La Grande Jatte Seurat, Study for La Grande Jatte Seurat Project Ideas: 1) Paint like Seurat. Materials: Acrylic Paint in Primary Colors (Secondary Colors can also be included if desired) Paper Cups or Paint Trays Q-Tips or Very Small Paint Brushes White Textured Painting Paper (6”x 8” is good) Pencils --Have the kids sketch a very simple scene of something outdoors such as a single figure and/or animal in the grass, or near a tree or pond. Then, apply dots of color using Seurat’s Pointillist technique. No brushstrokes and no mixing paint! Experiment with placing the dots far apart, close together, overlapping. --See if they can fill the paper with the dots. They can also make a border near the edges. 2) Make a Picture Using Markers Materials: Fine Tip and Large Tip Markers Heavy Stock White Paper --Using magic markers have the children draw a SIMPLE design (i.e. a beach ball, a flower, a kite, balloons). Proceed to color it in using a dotting technique described above with the tip of their markers. .