ART HISTORY- REPORT OF GEORGES SEURAT
TITLE
GEORGES
SEURAT
PREPARED
FOR
PUAN
ASFARINA
PREPARED
BY
LIEW
MIN WEI (
2017050592
)
KONG
JUN HUI (
2017050651
)
DEBORAH
CHIN JIA YUAN (
2017050601
)
KOH
CHOONG EE (
2017050627
)
OUI
CHOON HOU (
2017050632
)
NAOMI
YAP KE YING (
2017050607
)
INDEX
|
Introduction
|
-
2 -
|
|
Background
and Life Story
|
-
3 -
|
|
Art
Movement Involved
|
-
5 -
|
|
Personal
Artistic Style
|
-
6 -
|
|
Art
Criticism - Le Chahut
|
-
8 -
|
|
-
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
|
-
11 -
|
|
-
Parade de Cirque
|
-
16 -
|
|
Conclusion
|
-
19 -
|
|
Bibliography
|
-
20 -
|
INTRODUCTION
The
artist that
we have chosen to research and do a reading report for
art
and
design history is Georges
Seurat. The reason is
simple - Georges
Seurat is
one of the primary inventors of using
pointillism
in to complete an entire piece of art. It is
a
technique
that
involves using
simple, distinct dots of pigments to
achieve the desired range of colors instead of mixing them on a
palette beforehand.
Branching out from the Impressionism movement, Seurat developed this
technique alongside Paul Signac.
Besides, we
admire how Georges Seurat had this great vision to incorporate
science into art. He achieved this dream by using the science of
optics to create colors from lots of small dots placed so closely
together that they eventually blur and blend to become one perfect
image.
Another
thing that motivated us to research on Seurat is that he is not
afraid to break out of what society deems acceptable and to create
something different entirely. His art was critically acclaimed when
it first debuted, especially A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte, but Seurat did not give up in pursuing his dream. He
pulled through all the negativity and became one of the world’s
most renowned artists in the end.
BACKGROUND
AND LIFE STORY
On
the 2nd
of December,
1859,
Georges-Pierre
Seurat was born into a very rich family in Paris,
France, or more specifically, at
60 rue de Bondy,
which is now
known as rue René Boulanger. The Seurat family moved to 136
boulevard de Magenta in around
the year 1862
to
1863. His father,
whose
name is Antoine Chrysostome Seurat,
was
a former legal official who had become wealthy from speculating in
property, and his mother, Ernestine Faivre, was from Paris. Seurat
had two
elder siblings - a brother,
Émile Augustin,
and
a sister
called
Marie-Berthe.
His father could
only visit his wife and children once a week at boulevard de Magenta
as he lived
in Le Raincy
instead.
Seurat
received
his earliest art lessons from an uncle but only began studying art
formally in
the boulevard Magentaat the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin,
which was run by the sculptor Justin Lequien.
In
1878,
Seurat
attended the famous art school Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Henri
Lemman,
a
disciple of the Neo-Classical painter Jean
Auguste Dominique Ingres
was
his teacher, and Seurat found himself following
a conventional academic training, drawing from
plaster
casts of antique sculpture and copying drawings by old masters.
However,
Seurat’s
formal artistic education came to an end in November 1879, when
he felt frustrated with the school’s strict and restricting
academic methods. He visited, studied and drew inspiration from
paintings all over like the new large-scale paintings of Puvis de
Chavannes. He also went to the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition where
he admired radical new works by Claude Monet and Camille Pissaro.
Seurat’s own mindset and concept on painting was heavily influenced
by the impressionists’ way of conveying light and atmosphere.
Seurat
was also vastly interested in the science behind art. He did a lot of
reading and researching on perception, color theory and the effect of
the simplest line and form on the mind.
In
1883, Seurat exhibited a drawing in the annual Salon, which is a
major state-sponsored exhibition. He was rejected by the Salon in the
following year. Without accepting defeat, Seurat banded together with
various other artists and founded a more progressive series of
unjuried exhibitions called the Salon des Independants.
In
the mid-1880s, Seurat developed Pointillism. Despite using a
different style of delivering color on canvas, he continued the work
of the Impressionists through his interest in everyday subject matter
that are easily overlooked by the common eye.
ART
MOVEMENT INVOLVED
Georges
Seurat is briefly involved in the impressionism movement before
breaking away and developing the Neo-Impressionism movement.
The
first distinctly modern movement in painting is the impressionism. It
developed in Paris in the 1860s and quickly spread throughout Europe.
The impressionism artists refused the official, government-sanctioned
exhibitions. Instead of fine finishes and details, the impressionists
capture the momentary, sensory effect of a scene; the first
impression it makes on the human eye.
The
impressionists’
art work is easily recognizable by the
brushstrokes and the free hand style
that
gave the group a
common identification.
Seurat
founded the Neo-Impressionism movement when his greatest masterpiece,
A
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte debuted
at an exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independants in Paris.
The dominant technique in the beginning of this movement are the
pointillist and divisionist techniques. Neo-Impressionist artists
studied modern scenes as well as landscapes and seashores and used
science-based interpretation of lines and colors.
PERSONAL
ARTISTIC STYLE
Georges
Seurat
invented the pointillism technique, which is classified as a
Neo-Impressionism technique.
This kind of technique uses
small dots
of colors placed closely together so that it will blur and blend in
the viewer’s eyes to make up a larger, vivid image.
Seurat wanted people to see the science in his paintings, hence
developed pointillism through the study of optical science.
In
the beginning,
Georges Seurat believed that famous modern art would be
similar
to classical art, except modern art uses
technologically knowledgeable
methods. Seurat
grew more interested in Gothic arts
and famous posters, and
he
made use of such bizarre sources as
an inspiration to
express
his work. His success rapidly drove him to the center of the Parisian
avant-garde. However,
he died at the young age of 31, cutting short his success.
Nevertheless, his innovations had created deep impression
and
structured the painting
of artists
that came after him
like
Vincent Van Gogh and the Italian Futurists.
Georges
Seurat began his artistic career under the teaching of artist Justin
Lequiene. Then, he continued his artistic advancement in the École
des Beaux-Arts accompany by teacher Henri Lehmann. Black and white
drawings were Georges
Seurat’s artistic style in his early career. Seurat’s tendency to
become an
expert
in applying the technique of black and white drawing arose from the
artist always being in a hurry and drawing allowed
him to illustrate a scene at a faster rate.
Seurat
also enjoyed using
drawings
to illustrate the basis of light, and drawing in
black and white was
perfect
for him.
Though Seurat
gradually developed
his
own
artistic style of pointillism, he still made
pencil drawings and
sketches as
a draft before he painted.
Furthermore, Georges
Seurat applied Conté
crayon for his shades of black whereas the white of the paper
presented as glowing shades of white with a view to opposition with
the black.
ART
CRITICISM - LE CHAHUT
i.
Description
Le
Chahut is a Neo-Impressionist painting
depicting a scene in a music or concert hall.
It
was first exhibited in
1890 in Paris.
Nowadays, Le
Chahut
is on
display
at the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, Netherland. Le Chahut is an
oil painting on canvas measuring 170 by 141 cm.
The painting shows a small troupe of dancers made up of two pairs of
males and females in the middle of a high kick. It is painted in a
way that the viewer’s perspective is from behind the orchestra’s
double bass section. It
is divided into three principal spaces. The
orchestra
occupies
the lower left section, one of whom is
right in the middle with
his back turned towards
the viewer
while the dancers
occupy the upper right. The background consists of ornate
cabaret-style lighting fixtures, and a few members of the audience
sitting in the front row, their eyes watching on the performance. On
the lower right another client is staring with a sidelong glance,
with
a hint
of sexual desire or sly and malicious intent .
ii.
Analysis
The
painting depicts the dancers in the middle of a high energy dance,
possibly the can can. The way that the performers on stage and the
audience
are
placed
creates
a synthetic sense of dynamical movement.
The
painting
mostly
leans
toward the red end of the color
spectrum,
with
earthly
tones of browns, tans, warm grays, and blues.
A
deeper blue border painted around the edge of the canvas comes
together
in a shallow arch on the upper edge
creates more of a performance feel.
The
main color theme in Seurat's work is orange and brown. Such an effect
is created by his use of lighting and how it reacts in juxtaposition
with other darker colors. Apart from the cello player at the front of
the piece, all the painting's figures appear to be wearing the same
color and this effect is maintained by the encompassing low lighting.
iii.
Interpretation
Seurat's
use of composition is perhaps the biggest indicator of his views of
Parisian nightlife. The figures to the right of the piece is
performing the cancan are perhaps the most eye catching and their
synchronized form almost make them appear as one entity. We can see
that their legs are the same length, both on the ground and in the
air. The part of painting that critics comment on, however, is the
figure below the performers who stares upwards at the open skirt of
the woman. While the performer is a picturesque beauty but the
spectator is look ugly. Seurat's work depicts this theme more by the
performers faces all seem almost like cartoon. The female performers
curved smile and closed eyes are a direct match of the male
performers moustache. Their performance and their look is
synchronized to every detail.
iv.
Judgment
La
Chahut is an extremely realistic painting of a circus performance, so
much so that the viewers can almost feel the excitement and the hype
of the crowd. Seurat has succeeded in making the emotion of the
subjects palpable and brilliantly captured the seemingly fleeting
moment of the performers dancing. Though inanimate, the painting
draws the viewers right into the scene and allows them to feel as if
being a part of the audience watching the performance.
ART
CRITICISM - A SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE ISLAND OF LA GRANDE JATTE
i.
Description:
In
one of his most well-known work, Georges Seurat depicted lots of
people from seemingly different classes in society relaxing in a
suburban park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande Jatte.
This artwork is an oil on canvas painting, spanning a total of 81 3/4
x 121 1/4 inches (207.5 x 308.1 cm), or about seven by ten feet tall.
From 1884 until the spring of 1886, A
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
took a whooping 2 years to paint, and Seurat finally completed his
most famous masterpiece at the tender age of 26.
The
portrait consists of 48 people, three dogs, eight boats and a monkey
as they spend a warm afternoon in a lovely park. It looks like a
wonderful place to be, with soft pastures overlooking a beautiful
blue lake and big green trees shading overhead with a strong sense of
sunlight streaming through the trees. The painting, however, was
largely unseen for 30 years after Seurat’s death until art lover
Frederic Clay Barlett purchased and loaned it indefinitely to the Art
Institute of Chicago in 1924, where it still hangs until today. In
1889, Seurat re-stretched the canvas in order to paint a border of
red, orange and blue dots around the initial artwork.
ii.
Analysis:
Seurat
once said, “Some say they see poetry in my paintings, I see only
science.” It became obvious that Seurat was greatly fascinated and
inspired by the natural order of things and intended to bring science
into the methods of impressionism. He found a way of making his
paintings more luminous through the science of vision and by using
optical mixture to get the perfect color gradient instead of blending
the colors on a palette. Seurat returned to the most fundamental
element of art - point - and reinvented his own style which is
greatly reflected in this painting.
Georges
Seurat was also a master in the division of space and had an
obviously clever play of lines especially in this particular
portrait. He uses receding diagonal lines to create the illusion of
space. For example, the most distinctive is the line that draws the
eyes from the lower left to the upper right. However, many other
diagonals can be found as well. There is also a horizontal line
suggested along the coast line. The parallel lines in the painting
depicts a certain rhythm creating a sense of space and distance. Such
repetition is also visible in horizontal and vertical lines. All
these lines link to separate figures in the suggested space and the
lines on the canvas actually form an asymmetrical composition. Seurat
also used subject planes to create distance and depth to his
painting.
Instead
of following the typical impressionist method, Seurat took his time
creating this painting. He visited the La Grande Jatte often, and
would observe and make multiple small sketches before throwing them
together in a huge canvas and structuring the painting. It can be
argued that Seurat used a 3x3 grid to arrange the composition as
everything is organized and ordered.
Seurat
also had an innovative use of complementary colors, which means
colors that are opposite on the color wheel and usually clashing with
each other. This usage of complementary colors can also be seen in
the grass, where for the lighter parts, Seurat used a mixture of
green, dark green and yellow. As for the darker, shaded grass, he
used the same green with more elements of dark green with red and
blue dots thrown in together. In this case, the yellow and green are
analog colors but the red and blue are complementary. This technique
of color mixing creates an extra edge to the subjects and objects in
the painting. For example, the woman with the parasol has her skirt
painted with pink and orange dots and yet it casts a blue shadow.
Another example is the man smoking a pipe lying on his backside. He
has layered brushstrokes with pink and blue added much later on, thus
giving a clear contour of the figure and a more three dimensional
look.
iii.
Interpretation:
One
of the most noticeable things about the subjects in the painting is
that Seurat only depicted the figures in their side and front view.
This is due to Seurat’s fascination of the ancient Egyptian, Greek
and Phoenician art that inspired him to create timeless masterpieces
in his time. He sought to capture the people of his Paris just as the
ancients had immortalized their citizens, seeking a sense of
timelessness and that his work would survive even through oblivion.
Another
cognitive content in this painting is the figures being of various
classes and backgrounds. In truth, ambiguity of class was an issue in
Seurat’s time, and some may argue that it is to portray a mixing of
class. According to the Art Institute of Chicago, the portrait is a
depiction of the growing middle class at pleasure. However, other art
historians argue that Seurat was trying to illustrate the social
tension between different social classes who hang out at the same
public places but don’t interact with each other. This theory can
be supported by the fact that even though there is activity in the
painting, the placing of the figures creates a formal stiffness.
It
is also cited that Seurat included certain symbolism in his painting
to highlight the Paris that he saw. It is possible that the monkey on
the lower right represents prostitution as the French word for
monkey, singesse,
also means prostitute. Besides, the woman fishing at the water bank
may subtly suggest the other kind of fishing, and that she is, in
fact, a hooker.
The
girl near the center of the portrait is another figure that holds
potential message and mystery. She does not have a distinctive shadow
cast on her and her features show that she is most probably the
youngest of all the people in the painting. She is also the only one
wearing white and is looking right at the viewer, thus radiating an
energy of youth and pureness. Viewers are tempted to wonder if she
would grow up to be misguided like everyone else, muddied and
influenced by the world around her, or if she would stand firm in
pure righteousness and do what is different but right.
iv.
Judgment:
Overall,
we really like the complexity of colors, structure and the large
scale composition of the painting. We also like how Seurat departed
from loose brushstrokes and instead used calculated dots of color in
his artwork. It gives off a vibe of pensive thoughtfulness instead of
the spontaneity of the impressionism as impressionists usually
capture the fleeting moment on canvas but Seurat chose a more
academic approach by doing extensive research and studies. Seurat did
not give a clear sense of narrative to his portrait, conveying
figures who do not communicate or talk to one another, but this
unclear story leaves room for the mind to wander and to truly think
about the characters not only as they appear in the painting. It
allows depth in every sense of the word.
Despite
being clearly out of the expectation of the people in the 19th
century and having being received poorly by critics when it debuted
in 1886, A
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte has
become one of the world’s most appreciated paintings alongside the
famous Mona
Lisa.
The painting may have the ongoing impressionist influence in the
usage of color and light, visible brush strokes and subjects, yet it
displays Seurat’s different choices in size, composition and
technique. Seurat’s scientific approach and the balancing between
apparent contradictions such as tradition and innovation, modernity
and timelessness has truly made it stand out from the norm, making
it, indeed, a timeless and classical, successful piece of art.
ART
CRITICISM - PARADE DE CIRQUE
i.
Description
Parade
de cirque, or in English, Circus Sideshow is one of the circus based
art by Georges Seurat, the other one is Le Cirque(The Circus). The
painting is a 99.7cm x 140.9cm (39.25in x 59in) large oil painting on
canvas. This painting is made within the year 1887-1888. Now it was
kept at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
ii.
Analysis
Parade
de cirque is a Neo-impressionist painting by Georges Seurat, the
founder of this unique art movement. Neo-impressionism is a
divisionist technique or known as pointillisim. Impressionism is an
art movement that subjects on landscapes or scenes of everyday life.
Neo-impressionist is inspired by optical theory but at the same time
subjects the same thing like Impressionism do. Neo-Impressionist
painting is painted by using tiny adjacent dabs of primary colour.
The artist will place the primary-colour component of each colour
separately on the canvas in tiny dabs and the colour will mix in the
spectator’s eyes. This method can give greater luminosity because
optically mixed colours will move towards white. The author of the
book, ‘Georges Seurat 1859~1891’ said this painting is painted in
golden mean which makes it achieves the most geometric in design.
iii.
Interpretation
Parade
de cirque is a scene of the entrance of a circus tent, the circus is
called Cirque Convis. The young boy at the middle of the painting
with a ruffled collar was a trombonist who perform in front of the
platform at the top of the central stairs. The right side of the
painting which is painted in green was a ticket window and doors. The
musicians and acrobats who stand on both sides of the doors is
performing a sideshow to to entice passersby. Those wishing to buy
tickets have to climb up the stairs to the platform of the sideshow.
The queue line is parallel to the platform and the staircase was in
front of the ticket window and the doors, so ticket holder will had
to queue up and climb up the staircase. This can be prove by the men
and women at the right bottom of the painting. At the right side of
the painting, there is a woman with a young girl stand in front of
the ticket window. There
is a poster behind the trombonist which defines the edge of the
platform and shows the admission price. Above
the poster is the gas pipe support beam. The
trombonist deep in shadow, stands several meters in front of the
platform on a pedestal. While the tuba player(at the very left) is
faceless, the red faces of the clarinetist and cornet players(the
three musicians behind the trombonist) show that they stand on the
gaslit platform.
iv.
Judgement
Parade
de cirque is an excellent painting because it shows a clear mood of
the scene happened at the time the circus was selling tickets. Almost
every person and thing inside the painting is painted at the golden
ratio. With the use of Neo-impressionism, the difficulty of the art
also is greatly enhanced. Neo-impressionists with the use of science
based interpretation of lines and colors make the painting more focus
on the skill and the science study of a Neo-impressionist. Parade de
cirque is an high-skilled and very complicated art work by Georges
Seurat, it is an successful artwork because it is maintained in
golden ratio and almost can be said as a flawless artwork.
CONCLUSION
We
admire Georges Seurat’s learning attitude and how he did not give
up easily. Even though he was disagreed with the teaching method in
art school, he did not stop learning altogether. Instead, he merely
took his own path and continued learning in a way that is most
suitable for him.
Also,
his courage in innovation motivates us to step out and be different.
We have learned that it is okay to differ from what society deems
acceptable, because we perceive the world in our own unique way and
there is no definitive right or wrong.
After
much research on Georges Seurat, we can all agree that he is a
remarkable artist who has definitely made his mark on the history of
art. His works are among the most classical pieces that have and will
survive through eras and generation to come.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
Nelson,
Ken. “History: Pointillism Art for Kids.” Ducksters.
Technology
Solutions, Inc. (TSI), Sep. 2017. Web. 19 Sep. 2017.
www.ducksters.com/history/art/pointillism.php
“Georges
Seurat Biography.com.” The
Biography.com. A&E
Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Sep. 2017.
https://www.biography.com/people/georges-seurat-9479599
Stanska,
Zuzanna. “Everything You Must Know About ‘A Sunday on La Grande
Jatte’ by Georges Seurat.” DailyArtDaily.
DailyArtDaily,
2 Dec. 2016. Web. 15 Sep. 2017.
“About
This Artwork.” The
Art Institute of Chicago.
The Art Institute of Chicago, n.d. Web. 15 Sep. 2017.
Puchko,
Kristy. “15 Facts About A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - 1884.”
Mental
Floss.
Mental Floss, Inc., 1 May 2015. Web. 15 Sep. 2017.
“Art
Term - Neo-Impressionism.” Tate.
Tate,
n.d. Web. 15 Sep 2017.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/neo-impressionism
Films:
“Seurat,
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” YouTube,
conversation
between Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, Smarthistory. art,
history, conversation, 2 Apr. 2012, youtu.be/wNB9Vm6MoDQ.
“Georges
Seurat - A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-1886).” YouTube,
Art
History Online, 24 Feb. 2017, youtu.be/jkVVrNfCfT8
Books:
Herbert,
Robert L. Georges
Seurat 1859-1891. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1991. Print.