Seurat

By the time Georges Seurat (1859-1891) died at only 32, in just over a decade he had revolutionized technique in painting, spearheaded a new movement, Neoimpressionism, and bought a degree of scientific rigor to his investigations of color that would prove profoundly influential well into this century.

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As a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Seurat read Chevreul's 1839 book on the theory of color and this, along with his own analysis of Delacroix' paintings and the aesthetic observations of scientist Charles Henry, led him to formulate the concept of Divisionism. This was a method of painting around colour contrasts in which shade and tone are built up through dots of paint (pointillism) that emphasise the complex interrelation of light and shadow. The two paintings that reflect Seurat's investigations in this area more than any others, 1884's "Bathers at Asnieres" and 1886's "A Sunday Afternoon at the Ile de La Grande Jatte," are also two of his most famous-the latter is arguably one of the most iconic paintings of the 19th century.