Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism. Seurat's artistic personality was compounded of qualities which are usually supposed to be opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility; on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. His large-scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886), altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.
Georges Seurat first studied art at the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin, near his family's home in the boulevard Magenta, which was run by the sculptor Justin Lequien. In 1878 he moved on to the École des Beaux-Arts where he was taught by Henri Lehmann, and followed a conventional academic training, drawing from casts of antique sculpture and copying drawings by old masters. Seurat's studies resulted in a well-considered and fertile theory of contrasts: a theory to which all his work was thereafter subjected. His formal artistic education came to an end in November 1879, when he left the École des Beaux-Arts for a year of military service.
After a year at the Brest Military Academy, he returned to Paris where he shared a studio with his friend Aman-Jean, while also renting a small apartment at 16 rue de Chabrol. For the next two years, he worked at mastering the art of monochrome drawing. His first exhibited work, shown at the Salon, of 1883, was a Conté crayon drawing of Aman-Jean. He also studied the works of Eugène Delacroix carefully, making notes on his use of color.
Man standing, leaning on a stick 1877
Angelica at the rock. After Ingres 1878
Head of a Girl 1879
Landscape at Saint-Ouen 1879
Vase of Flowers 1879
Landscape with Puvis de Chavannes' Poor Fisherman 1879-1881
Man leaning on a parapet 1879-1881
Soldier Fencing, Another Reclining 1880
Female from back. Black woman 1881
Grassy Riverbank 1881
Seated Woman 1881
Stone breakers, Le-Raincy 1881
The Forest at Pontaubert 1881
The seller of oranges 1881
Woman standing 1881
On the road 1881-1882
The Stone Breaker 1881-1882
The Stone Breaker 1881-1882
House at Dusk 1881-1882
Peasants 1881-1884
At work the land, man's face in profile, leaning forward 1881-1890
Group of figures in front of a house and some trees 1881-1890
Nurse sitting holding her baby 1881-1890
On the balcony 1881-1890
Ploughing 1881-1890
Sleeping Woman 1881-1890
Stone crusher 1881-1890
The black bow 1881-1890
The cart or the horse hauler 1881-1890
The Painter 1881-1890
The Ploughman 1881-1890
The scene in the theater 1881-1890
The tree trunk 1881-1890
Gardener 1882
Landscape in the Ile-de-France 1882
Peasant with Hoe 1882
Peasants Driving Stakes 1882
Suburb 1882
The Hedge. The Clearing 1882
The Hollow Way 1882
The Mower 1882
White Houses, Ville d'Avray 1882
Young Peasant in Blue 1882
Haymakers at Montfermeil 1882
Haystacks 1882
Man with a Hoe 1882
Peasant with a Hoe 1882
The Stone Breaker 1882
The Black Bow 1882
House with Red Roof 1882-1883
Large Figure in a Landscape 1882-1883
Men Laying Stakes 1882-1883
Peasant boy sitting in a meadow 1882-1883
Snow Effect. Winter in the Suburbs 1882-1883
Stone Breaker and Wheelbarrow, Le Raincy 1882-1883
The Artist's Mother 1882-1883
The Bridge. View of the Seine 1882-1883
The Riverbanks 1882-1883
The Riverside 1882-1883
Two-horse hitch 1882-1883
Factories by Moonlight 1882-1883
Sidewalk Show 1883-1884
A house between trees 1883
A River Bank. The Seine at Asnieres 1883
Alley in the forest, Barbizon 1883
Boats near the Beach at Asnieres 1883
Clothes on the Grass 1883
Edge of Wood, Springtime 1883
Farm Women at Work 1883
Farmer to work 1883
Forest of Barbizon 1883
Horses in the Water 1883
Man Painting his Boat 1883
Peasant Woman Seated in the Grass 1883
Portrait of Edmond-François Aman-Jean 1883
Rainbow 1883
Seated Bather 1883
Seated Man. Study for 'Bathers at Asnieres' 1883
Study for 'Bathers at Asnieres' 1883
The Black Horse 1883
The Stone Breakers 1883
The Watering Can 1883
Trees, winter 1883
Village Road 1883
Voilette 1883
Figures in a Landscape 1883
A Summer Landscape 1883
The Gardener 1883-1884
Courbevoie, Landscape With Turret 1883-1884
Final Study for Bathing at Asnieres 1883-1884
River's Edge 1883-1884
Rue St. Vincent in Spring 1883-1884
The Bank of the Seine 1883-1884
Horse and Boats 1883-1884
The Seine with Clothing on the Bank 1883-1884
Study for 'Bathers at Asnières' 1883-1884
Artist at work 1884
Woman Fishing and Seated Figures 1884
Bathers at Asnières 1884
Cadet From Saint-Cyr 1884
Woman with a Monkey 1884
Corner of a House 1884
Horse and cart 1884
La Grande Jatte 1884
River Landscape with a boat 1884
Riverman 1884
The Stone Breakers, Le Raincy 1882
Sailboat. Study for La Grande Jatte 1884
Seated and Standing Woman 1884
Seated figures 1884
Study for 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' 1884
Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte 1884
Study for 'Un dimanche après midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte' 1884
Study on the Island 1884
The Bineau Bridge 1884
Woman with Umbrella 1884
The Couple 1884
The Rope-Colored Skirt 1884
Monkey 1884
Woman with a Muff 1884
The Stone Breake 1884
Three Men Seated 1884
Study for 'La Grande Jatte' 1884-1885
Study for Un dimanche d'été à la Grande Jatte 1884-1885
Study with Figures. Study for 'La Grande Jatte' 1884-1885
White dog 1884-1885
Study of Figures for La Grande Jatte 1884-1885
Landscape with Figure. Study for 'La Grande Jatte' 1885
Study for 'La Grande Jatte' 1884-1885
Study for 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' 1884-1886
Woman Seated by an Easel 1884-1888
A canoes 1885
Grandcamp, Evening 1885
Landscape at Grandcamp 1885
Two Stonebreakers 1881
Low Tide at Grandcamp 1885
Race in Grandcamp 1885
The away Samson in Grandcamp 1885
The Bec du Hoc, Grandcamp 1885
The Seine at Courbevoie 1885
View of Fort Samson 1885
The Morning Walk 1885
Alfalfa, St. Denis 1886
Beach at Bas Butin, Honfleur 1886
End of the Jetty, Honfleur 1886
Harbor in Honfleur 1886
Hospice and Lighthouse, Honfleu 1886
Model from the Back 1886
Model in Profile 1886
Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur, evening 1886
Port of Honfleur 1886
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte 1886
The Maria, Honfleur 1886
The Pont de Courbevoie 1886
The Port of Honfleur 1886
Women by the Water 1886
The Lighthouse at Honfleur 1886
Anaïs Faivre Haumonté on her deathbed 1887
Model to front 1887
Part of the studio 1887
Poseur standing, front view, study for 'Les poseuses' 1887
The Bridge at Courbevoie 1887
Trombone player 1887
Still Life with Hat, Parasol, and Clothes on a Chair 1887
Circus Sideshow 1888
Harbour at Port-en-Bessin at High Tide 1888
Port-en-Bessin Entrance to the Harbor 1888
Port-en-Bessin, The Outer Harbor, Low Tide 1888
Port-en-Bessin, the Semaphore and Cliffs 1888
Study for 'Invitation to the Sideshow' 1888
Sunday at Port-en-Bessin 1888
The Channel at Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe 1888
The Garbage Picker 1888
The Harbour and the Quays at Port-en-Bessin 1888
The Models 1888
The river Seine at La Grande-Jatte 1888
Moored Boats and Trees 1890
Study after 'The Models' 1888
The Seine seen from La Grande Jatte 1888
The Eiffel Tower 1888
View of Crotoy, the Valley 1889
View of Le Crotoy, from Upstream 1889
Study for 'Chahut' 1889-1890
Study for The Chahut 1889-1890
Beach at Gravelines 1890
Chahut 1890
Portrait of Paul Signac 1890
Study for 'The Channel at Gravelines' 1890
Study for 'The Channel at Gravelines, Evening' 1890
Study for 'Young Woman Powdering Herself' 1890
The Channel at Gravelines, Evening 1890
The Channel at Gravelines, in the Direction of the Sea 1890
The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe 1890
Young Woman Powdering Herself 1890
Seascape. Gravelines 1890
Country Hitch 1883
The Circus 1891
Café-concert 1887-1888
He spent 1883 working on his first major painting—a large canvas titled Bathers at Asnières, a monumental work showing young men relaxing by the Seine in a working-class suburb of Paris. Although influenced in its use of color and light tone by Impressionism, the painting with its smooth, simplified textures and carefully outlined, rather sculptural figures, shows the continuing impact of his neoclassical training; the critic Paul Alexis described it as a "faux Puvis de Chavannes". Seurat also departed from the Impressionist ideal by preparing for the work with a number of drawings and oil sketches before starting on the canvas in his studio.
Bathers at Asnières was rejected by the Paris Salon, and instead he showed it at the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants in May 1884. Soon, however, disillusioned by the poor organisation of the Indépendants, Seurat and some other artists he had met through the group – including Charles Angrand, Henri-Edmond Cross, Albert Dubois-Pillet and Paul Signac – set up a new organisation, the Société des Artistes Indépendants. Seurat's new ideas on pointillism were to have an especially strong influence on Signac, who subsequently painted in the same idiom.In the summer of 1884, Seurat began work on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which took him two years to complete.
The painting shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities. The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the viewer's eye to blend colors optically, rather than having the colors physically blended on the canvas. It took Seurat two years to complete this 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) painting, much of which he spent in the park sketching in preparation for the work (there are about 60 studies). It is now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Seurat made several studies for the large painting including a smaller version, Study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1885), now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City.
Seurat concealed his relationship with Madeleine Knobloch (or Madeleine Knoblock, 1868–1903), an artist's model whom he portrayed in his painting Jeune femme se poudrant. In 1889 she moved in with Seurat in his studio on the 7th floor of 128bis Boulevard de Clichy.
When Madeleine became pregnant, the couple moved to a studio at 39 passage de l'Élysée-des-Beaux-Arts (now rue André Antoine). There she gave birth to their son, who was named Pierre-Georges, 16 February 1890.Seurat spent the summer of 1890 on the coast at Gravelines, where he painted four canvases including The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe, as well as eight oil panels, and made a few drawings.
Seurat died in Paris in his parents' home on 29 March 1891 at the age of 31. The cause of his death is uncertain, and has been variously attributed to a form of meningitis, pneumonia, infectious angina, and diphtheria. His son died two weeks later from the same disease. His last ambitious work, The Circus, was left unfinished at the time of his death.
30 March 1891 a commemorative service was held in the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Seurat was interred 31 March 1891 at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.
At the time of Seurat's death, Madeleine was pregnant with a second child who died during or shortly after birth.
