'One-Hit Wonder' of the Art World - Georges Seurat

There is an artist who became the icon of 19th century painting for a single famous artwork.
It's a multiple choice question. You've got 1/3 chance to get it right!

1. Van Gogh
2. Vermeer
3. Seurat

_{The answer is.... 3. Georges Pierre Seurat.}

It could be confusing. Van Gogh left over 2,000 paintings/drawings during his 10-year career. Although Vermeer only painted 34 of them, most are widely recognized these days.

Georges Pierre Seurat (1859-1891, died at 31) painted 7 artworks along with 500 sketches. One of them became one of the most famous paintings that represent the 19th century neo-impressionism movement. Below is his masterpiece <A Sunday on La Grande Jatte>. _{(Feel like you've seen it before?)}

_{<A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884> by Georges Seurat, Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art}

"Some say they see poetry in my paintings; I see only science."
- Georges Seurat

Seurat believed in the psychological effects of colors. He conveyed his feelings through each color and brush strokes. He applied the basic principle of color mixing into his paintings. If two colors overlapped, the third color would be formed. Rather than blending the paints on a palette, Seurat painted the colors directly on a canvas, creating an optical illusion that allows viewers's eyes to mix the color themselves.

This kind of technique, called pointillism, requires substantial amount of laber and it took him 2 years to complete this single painting. Also, it's a pretty large size painting, 82" x 121". (207.5 x 308.1 cm)

<A Sunday on La Grande Jatte> was first showed on the 8th Annual Impressionist Exhibition in 1886. Some artists, like Monet, displays strong resentment and the Impressionist exhibition of that year becomes the final. It immediately changes the direction of the paintings. Seurat's distinctive style to combine the science and art marked the start of neo-impressionism.

<sub>< The Circus, 1891> by Georges Seurat, © Musée d'Orsay



< Bathers at Asnières, 1884> by Georges Seurat, © London National Gallery</sub>

Many artists, like Picasso and Van Gogh, left hundreds and thousands of artworks and some artists, like Seurat, became highly renowned for only a few paintings.


<A Sunday on La Grande Jatte> is a permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Take your time to go to the museum and have a closer look when you get a chance to visit Chicago! :)

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