Learn About the Life and Paintings of Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat was a French painter most commonly associated with the Post-Impressionism movement in art, which was a nineteenth-century style of painting that favored rendering real-life subject matter in distorted and fantastical ways. Seurat is known for his use of pointillism and color-blocking in his paintings, which he would use to achieve the illusion of mixed colors by placing different pigments side-by-side. After showcasing the most famous painting of his career A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Seurat was credited as the father of “Neo-Impressionism”—which refers to a style of painting where unmixed colors are placed side-by-side to achieve the effect of mixing—by art critic Félix Fénéon.

Here is a brief overview of Georges Seurat’s life:

• Early life and career: Georges-Pierre Seurat was born in Paris in 1859. Seurat’s family was well off, which allowed him to pursue his art without financial worries. In 1875, Seurat attended sculptor Justin Lequien’s school, later enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Henri Lehmann and became independently interested in the philosophy of art, especially color theory. In 1883 Seurat had his first showing at the French government’s official Salon.
• Rise of Neo-Impressionism: Seurat developed a signature technique of painting dots or blocks of unmixed colors side-by-side to create the effect of mixing colors. Une Baignade, Asnières, Seurat’s first painting experimenting this new technique, was rejected from the French government’s official Salon, which led him to co-found the Salon des Indépendants with Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, and Paul Signac. In 1884, he began working on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which would become one of his most famous paintings. In a review of the painting, art critic Félix Fénéon coined the term “Neo-Impressionism” to describe the painting, giving birth to a new movement.
• Later life and death: In 1891, at the age of 31, Seurat died of uncertain causes—meningitis or pneumonia are possible reasons. Seurat’s son, Pierre-Georges, died shortly after, and the painter’s works were divided between Madeleine Knobloch (his mistress and the mother of his son) and Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist contemporaries. One of Seurat’s followers, Signac, continued to champion Seurat's theories of color and form after the artist’s death.

Seurat’s unique style was rooted in his research on light, form, and color. His works are notable for:

• Pointillism and divisionism: Two of Seurat’s signature painting techniques were divisionism (which is the separation of pigments) and pointillism (which are tiny brushstrokes resembling dots) which he often used together. Suerat and his followers used mélange optique (optical mixture) by placing colors next to each other, rather than mixing them on the palette, to mimic the look of light.
• Lines: In the late 1880s Seurat developed a theory of emotions corresponding to the way he painted his lines. He believed that horizontal lines were calm, upward lines were happy, and downward lines were sad. Imbuing lines with feeling was part of Seurat’s artistic personality.
• Careful composition: Seurat’s large paintings were carefully planned and formally composed, which distinguished his work from the spontaneity of the Impressionists. His study and planning of color and deliberate, measured style was a defining feature of Neo-Impressionism.

During his brief but influential career, Seurat only showed seven major canvases, though he left behind a collection of conté crayon drawings that became popular. Here are five of Seurat’s most famous paintings:

1. 1. Bathers at Asnières (1884): Seurat’s first major painting shows a group of figures relaxing on the banks of the Seine. Bathers broke from Impressionism with its careful planning (Seurat made at least 23 preparatory drawings and oil sketches for this piece) and his use of divisionism. Set in an industrial suburb of Paris and featuring working-class men and boys, the large-scale work subtly points out class differences by placing a bourgeois boating couple in the background.
2. 2. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886): Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist masterpiece shows people of various social classes enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon on the banks of the Seine in Paris. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is Seurat’s largest and most famous painting, and took nearly two years to plan and execute. He uses pointillism and divisionism in the painting to showcase the unique light and color of the afternoon. When art critic Félix Fénéon viewed the painting at the Salon des Indépendants, he was inspired to come up with the term “Neo-Impressionism” to describe this type of painting. Today, the painting hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
3. 3. Circus Sideshow (1887–1888): In this painting, Seurat shows a ringmaster attempting to attract ticket-buyers for their circus show. Seurat plays with shape in this painting by juxtaposing sculpture-like figures with an angular, almost gridded rectangular background. Today, this painting hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
4. 4. La Seine à la Grande-Jatte (1888): La Seine à la Grande Jatte shows the same bank of the Seine that Seurat painted in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, except this time, the bank is empty of weekenders and peaceful. He adheres to pointillism and divisionism in this painting, but with a style that comes across as much softer. Today, this painting hangs in the National Gallery in London.
5. 5. Young Woman Powdering her Face (1888–1890): Seurat captured his secret mistress Madeleine Knobloch powdering her face in a Rococo-style vanity in this caricature-like painting. This work showcases Seurat’s growing fascination with human figures painted in a cartoonish style.
6. 6. Le Chahut (1890): This painting showcases caricature-like dancers and musicians performing the can-can (or le chahut). The dancers’ legs form diagonal parallel lines, echoed in the neck of a bass and violin bows, which explores Seurat’s later theory about the effect of different angles of lines on the emotions.
7. 7. The Circus (1891): This was the last painting that Seurat completed before his death. The painting shows a scene from inside a circus big top, where a dancer rides a horse as the audience looks on. The Circus is now part of the collection in the Museé d’Orsay in Paris.

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