Post-Impressionism 1880’s to 1900

In the late 1880’s a group of painters who originally were Impressionists broke away from the main objectives of Impressionism and started to develop the Impressionist characteristics into something with more personal.

These artists wanted to make paintings that did more than just describe a landscape or scene; they wanted to make paintings that at the same time described emotion. These artists sometimes used symbolism in their work.

Cezanne Gauguin Who Van Gogh Seurat

The Post-Impressionists influenced the next generation of artists particularly the art movements of MODERN ART CUBISM FAUVISM EXPRESSIONISM

Seurat

Summary Georges Seurat is best known for developing Impressionism into a new direction. This new art movement becomes known as ‘POINTILLISM’. Pointillism was devised by a series of scientific principles and further developed the Impressionist technique of optical mixing into a refined art.

Pointillism is also known as: Neo-Impressionism Divisionism Seurat developed this technique with another artist PAUL SIGNAC in the 1880s.

Early life Seurat was born in Paris in 1859 to well-off parents. He was a quiet and shy young man. In 1878 he entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts but wasn’t particularly successful there. His first major painting ‘Bathing at Asnieres’ 1883 was rejected by the Salon in 1884. Seurat was annoyed by this and from this moment on, he rejected the tradition Academic route into art and instead he aligned himself with the Impressionists.

Bathing at Asnieres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bs1iQ14LJY

Composition Seurat uses the rule of thirds and a diagonal composition to make the boy who is dangling his feet in the water the main focal point of this painting. He also uses elements of snapshot composition Subject Matter In line with Impressionism SM, Seurat is using an everyday scene. In this case the popular bathing and boating spot of Asineres on the Seine in Paris. The painting is typically Impressionist as it is both a landscape an da waterscape and focuses on the social life and leisure activities of Parisiens. We can see parallels with many Impressionist paintings. Technique Seurat’s brushwork is very stylized. The figures have an almost ‘cartoon’ quality to them. All the elements of this painting are heavily delineated. Seurat’s brushwork is similar to the Impressionists as he uses many unblended strokes of colour but here we see the beginnings of Pointillism as the strokes are very neat and uniform in application Colour Seurat’s colour is typically Impressionistic. He uses no black and instead we see heavy use of complementary colours to create tone, particularly red and green and orange and blue. The colours give the painting a very light and summery feel

Meeting Signac In May & June 1884 Bathing at Asineres hung at the first exhibition of a new group of Artistes Indépendants. The show was a financial disaster but out of all the mess and arguments, a well-organised society emerged called the Société des Artistes Indépendants. It was a one of their meetings (they agreed to have an annual exhibition) Seurat meet Paul Signac and they started to develop Pointillist paintings.

Signac’s paintings Breakfast Paul Signac Opus 217 Against The Enamel Of A Background Rhythmic With Beats And Angles Tones Paul Signac - The Papal Palace, Avignon

`Defining Pointillism’ Seurat developed a painstaking method of painting in tiny dots. This style was mostly influenced by OPTICAL MIXING. Seurat did not invent this. The Impressionists had been using this technique before him, but in a more ‘organic’ way. Seurat looking at optical mixing in a very scientific way and found out the reasoning why colours worked together. His interest was in tandem with scientific discoveries in optics at this time.

This research meant that Seurat spent sometimes more than a year or two on a single painting, sometimes up to 10 feet long. The process began by covering the canvas with a layer of paint, over which he painted a layer of local colours in broad textured strokes. Then he began to build up the tone and form by applying rows of multi-coloured dots working on only a small section at a time. As he had spent so much time on sketches and plans for the paintings, he hardly needed to look at the work from a distance to see if he was correct.

La Grande Jatte 1884-86 Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQOoDkwxuIs

Subject Matter The scene is on the opposite side of the Seine to Bathing at Asineres. In this painting Seurat is focusing on the leisure activities of the upper classes. For months he visited this island making studies and them developed the completed scene in his studio. Like most of Seurat’s paintings, the image feels frozen in time as a result of the stiff technique. Composition Seurat uses a very busy composition as he fills the image with people. The edge of the river creates a diagonal which leads the eye along the left hand side of the image and a second diagonal is created from the seated group bottom left up to the standing couple on the right. Some snapshot is being used. Technique The Pointillist technique as described in an early slide is used throughout. This painting is often thought of as Seurat’s Pointillist masterpiece as it exemplifies the technique so much. Colour Lots of complementary colours to create tone and form. A bright overall effect to match the summer’s day. No black.

The Scientists & Writers that influenced Seurat’s paintings Michel-Eugene Chevreul Principles of Harmony & contrasts of Colour Humbert de Superville Essay on the unmistakable sign of art.

Seurat’s Normandy Landscapes Gustave Corbet – The Cliffs at Etretat - 1870 Pissarro – The Pilot’s Jetty – Le Harve - 1903 Like Monet and many of the Impressionists and Realist painters, Seurat painted a series of paintings on the Normandy coast. Monet - Impression Sunrise - 1874

Seurat The Bec du Hoc, Grandcamp - 1885 Boats at Grandcamp - 1885 Port-en-Bessin (1888)

Seurat’s Circus Paintings Seurat, like Degas, Renoir & Toulouse Lautrec liked to paint scenes from Parisian theatres and circus’. Toulouse Lautrec Degas Renoir

Seurat’s Circus Paintings La Parade 1888 La Chahut 1890

The Circus 1890-91

Subject Matter This lively circus scene was left unfinished at Seurat’s death. His third major painting on this scene, it depicts a female performer standing on the top of a horse at the ‘Circus Fernando’ with many other circus performers and the audience in the scene. In the audience Seurat once again shows the distinction between the social classes at this time, with the wealthier in the seats at the front and the poorer hanging in the cheaper balcony seats at the back. Composition Seurat divides the painting into two main areas, juxtaposing the action of the circus performers in the foreground with the static audience in the background. Seurat uses curves and spirals in the foreground area to communicate the movement and energy and this is contrasted by straight lines in the background.

Colour The colour scheme also obeys precise rules: the primordial colour, that of pure light, white, dominates the canvas. The palette then harmonises the three primary colours: red, yellow and blue, modulated in small methodical brushstrokes echoing the rhythm of the lines. Finally Seurat isolates his painting both with a dark border painted directly on to the canvas and a flat frame in the same shade of blue, making it an integral part of the work. - http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/the-circus-7145.html?cHash=1e9590cc2a Brushwork & Technique The Pointillist technique as described before.

Seurat’s death Seurat died very young. He was only 31! He died unexpectedly, probably from a form of meningitis. He had a very short artistic career therefore all of his artistic work was compressed into 12 years only. Seurat had a relationship with a young model called Madeleline Knobloch, he lived with her and they actually had a son together. Bizarrely, he kept this relationship secret. However he did legally acknowledge his child and gave him his own Christian name in reverse. And two days before his death he introduced his young family to his mother.

http://www.biography.com/people/georges-seurat-9479599#synopsis