Seurat, 1859-1891: the master of pointillism (Basic Art)

Georges Seurat died in 1891, aged only 32, and yet in a career that lasted little
more than a decade he revolutionized technique in painting, spearheaded a new
movement, Neoimpressionism, and bought a degree of scientific rigour to his investigations
of colour that would prove profoundly influential well into the 20th century.
As a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Seurat read Chevreul's 1839 book on
the theory of colour and this, along with his own analysis of Delacroix' paintings
and the aesthetic observations of scientist Charles Henry, led him to formulate
the concept of Divisionism. This was a method of painting around colour contrasts
in which shade and tone are built up through dots of paint (pointillism) that
emphasise the complex inter-relation of light and shadow. Two paintings more than
any others reflect his investigations in this area - 1884's 'Bathers at Asnieres'
and 1886's 'A Sunday Afternoon at the Ile de La Grande Jatte'. Their impact was
immediate and enormous. Opposed to any popularization of his theories, he only
relented in 1890 and agreed to the publication of a summary volume. However, by
then he had just a year to live.