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Georges Seurat
French Pointillist Painter, 1859-1891
Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 ?C 29 March 1891) was a French painter and draftsman. His large work Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, his most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting
Seurat took to heart the color theorists' notion of a scientific approach to painting. Seurat believed that a painter could use color to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music. Seurat theorized that the scientific application of color was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He thought that the knowledge of perception and optical laws could be used to create a new language of art based on its own set of heuristics and he set out to show this language using lines, color intensity and color schema. Seurat called this language Chromoluminarism.
His letter to Maurice Beaubourg in 1890 captures his feelings about the scientific approach to emotion and harmony. He says "Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations".
Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colors, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colors, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colors and by lines pointing downwards.
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Painting ID:: 71175
circus
mk290 1890-91 canvsa 73x59in musee d orsay paris
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Painting ID:: 71177
mine
mk290 1887-88 conte crayon 12x9in private collection
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Painting ID:: 72948
Two Stonebreakers
"Two Stonebreakers (formerly called Deux Moissoneurs)", oil on panel, by the French painter Georges Seurat. 6 in. x 9 3/4 in. Yale University Art Gallery, gift of Walter J. Kohler, B.A. 1925. Courtesy of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Painting ID:: 72949
Vache noire dans un Pre
"Vache noire dans un PrX (Black Cow in a Meadow)," oil on panel, by the French artist Georges Seurat. 6 1/8 in. x 9 1/2 in. Yale University Art Gallery, gift of Walter J. Kohler, B.A. 1925. Courtesy of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Painting ID:: 72950
Le Pecheur
"Le Pecheur (Riverman; Fisherman)," oil on panel, by the French artist Georges Seurat. 13 3/16 in. x 16 13/16 in. Yale University Art Gallery, bequest of Edith Malvina K. Wetmore. Courtesy of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Georges Seurat
French Pointillist Painter, 1859-1891
Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 ?C 29 March 1891) was a French painter and draftsman. His large work Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, his most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting
Seurat took to heart the color theorists' notion of a scientific approach to painting. Seurat believed that a painter could use color to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music. Seurat theorized that the scientific application of color was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He thought that the knowledge of perception and optical laws could be used to create a new language of art based on its own set of heuristics and he set out to show this language using lines, color intensity and color schema. Seurat called this language Chromoluminarism.
His letter to Maurice Beaubourg in 1890 captures his feelings about the scientific approach to emotion and harmony. He says "Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations".
Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colors, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colors, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colors and by lines pointing downwards.
. Related Artists to Georges Seurat: | Aert van der Neer | Domenico Ghirlandaio | Nicolas Poussin | Jacob Ochtervelt | Claude Deruet |
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