Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat
(December 2, 1859-March 29, 1891)
Georges-Pierre Seurat was born on December 2, 1859, in Paris, France.
He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1878 and 1879. He served in the military and then painted
full time. He spent his life studying
color theories and founded the school
of Neo-Impressionism. His technique of using tiny dots of
contrasting colors become known as Pointilism. His famous canvas Sunday
Afternoon on the Island
of Le Grande Jatte was
the centerpiece of an exhibition in 1886. Seurat spent his winters in Paris, drawing and producing one large painting each year,
and his summers on France's
northern coast. In his short life Seurat produced seven monumental paintings,
60 smaller ones, drawings, and sketchbooks. He kept his private life very
secret, and not until his sudden death in Paris
on March 29, 1891,
did his friends learn of his mistress, who was the model for his painting Young
Woman Holding a Powder Puff.
McGaugh Interpretation
