Seurat

Georges Seurat redefined 19th-century art. His paintings of bodies at leisure and boats at harbor showcase his signature technique of Divisionism, which built up individual dots or patches of color into such shimmering canvases as the celebrated A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte.

Where’s the Point?

Georges Seurat’s revolutionary dots

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was only 31 when he died, but during his short life he created hundreds of drawings, oil sketches, and paintings on canvas that introduced a fresh perspective in European painting.

As a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he carefullly observed the work of Delacroix and became fascinated with the interplay between light and color. In doing so, he developed Divisionism, using small dabs of paint from the point of the brush to create pointilist images that shimmered with luminescence and hinted at movement.

In this accessible introduction to Seurat, meet an artist driven by a need to capture nature and the simple pleasures of life through a new language of painting.