Georges+Seurat

Georg es Seurat By Mia K-F Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French artist. Born in Paris, France, on the 2 nd of December 1859, Seurat first studied art at the Ecole Municipale De Sculpture et Dessin. In 1878, he changed his school to the École des Beaux-Arts. His education there came to an end when he left the school in November 1879 for a year of military service. In 1884, Seurat began work on one of his greatest pieces, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which took him two years to complete. Like some of Seurat’s other works, this painting was composed of many tiny dots of colour placed next to each other. When you look at the painting, your eyes blend the colours together, so a yellow and a red dot placed next to each other would look like an orange dot. This technique is called “Pointillism”. He devised this technique himself and used it very often in his works. The discovery of this painting technique was one of Seurat’s greatest achievements. Seurat died in Paris on 29 March 1891. He had a wife and child that he kept secret from his mother. The cause of his death is uncertain but two weeks later his son died of the same condition. In his 31 years of life, he made approximately 500 paintings.