Georges Seurat: Painting with Light

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Georges SeuratPainting with Light
Science and Modernism DLB 10/18/01
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Le Cirque (1890-1891)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Le Chahut (1889-90)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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La Parade (1887-88)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Les Poseuses (1886 88)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Un Dimanche dEte a lIlede la Grande Jatte
(1884-1886)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Une Baignade, Asnieres (1883-84)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Couple Dansant (1887)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Woman Seated by an Easel
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Seurat Resources on Color Theory

• Eugene Chevreul De la Loi du Contraste
  Simultane des Couleurs (1839)
• Charles Blanc Grammaire des Arts du Dessin,
  1867
• Ogden Rood Theories Scientifiques des Couleurs
  (Modern Chromatics), 1881
• Charles Henry Un Esthetique Scientifique,1885

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Color Vision I
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Color Vision II The Human Eye
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Color Vision III Rods and Cones
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The Color Wheel Opticks (1730)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
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Primary Colors
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Secondary Colors
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Tertiary Colors
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Munsell Color Tree

• Brightness
• (luminosity)
• Hue (color)
• Saturation

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Quiller Color Wheel
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Additive and Subtractive Mixing
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Mixing Pigments
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Color Harmony
Analogous Colors
From Nature
Complementary Colors
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Norham Castle (c.1835-40)
J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)
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Our English Coasts (1852)
William H. Hunt (1827-1910)
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Hotel/Motel Art
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Liberty Leading the People (1830)
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)
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Fanatics of Tangier (1837-1838)
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)
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Woman with a Parasol (1875)
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
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Impressionism (in a nutshell)

• Recording one instant, an artists impression of a
  precise moment.
• Concentrating on the play of lights on objects.
• Working outdoors and using easy flowing
  brushstrokes and pure colors.
• The subject of the painting was not as important
  as the value of light and atmosphere of the
  painting.
• Landscapes were a favorite theme of Impressionist
  painting. Everyday subjects and events were also
  chosen, and all were depicted according to the
  time of day, the natural light, and the mists or
  clouds present.
• http//www.ohes.opusd.k12.ca.us/docent/lesson5.htm

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Une Baignade, Asnieres (1883-84)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Tree (1884)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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The Lighthouse at Honfleur
Seurat, 1886
http//www.unleash.com/ruth/seurat/
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Un Dimanche dEte a lIlede la Grande Jatte
(1884-1886)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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Seurat Optical Mixing (F. Feneon 1886)

• Strokes which are not executed with a slashing
  brush,
• but by the application of tiny coloring spots
  (petit points).Here are
• Some presumed advantages of working this way
• These strokes unite on the retina, in an optical
  mixture.
• Now, the lighter intensity of an optical
  mixture is much greater
• than that of a pigment mixture. This is what
  modern physics means
• when it says that every mixture on the palette is
  a step towards
• Black.
• Since the numerical proportions of the coloring
  drops can vary
• infinitely within a small area, the most delicate
  nuances of modeling
• the most subtle gradations of tints can be
  translated.
• This spotting of the canvas demands no manual
  skill, but only-
• only!-an artistic and experienced vision.

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Painting with Color Un Petit Problem
From J. Carson Webster, Seurat in Perspective,
N. Broude, ed. Retinal fusion is indeed a
possible phenomenon.. If the separate spots are
sufficiently small (..imperceptible). but
painting differs markedly in that the separate
spots are usuallly quite perceptible. So, does
retinal fusion really take place in the works of
Seurat and the other neo-impressionists? Here
we can only suggest to the contrary that this
rarely if ever happens. In La Jatte, normal
viewing distance is 12-14 feet, size of points
1/8 to 1/16 in. Smallest dots fuse (or at
least disappear), larger ones do not. Retinal
Fusion (even in La Jatte) can be at most
considered of only very limited importance. What
happens is a kind of mental averaging.
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Les Poseuses (1886 88)
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
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La Parade (1887-88)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Le Chahut (1889-90)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Jeune Femme se Poudrant (1890)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Le Cirque (1890-1891)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Mona Lisa1503-6
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
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Odalisque and Slave (1839)
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 1876)
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Construction of the Eiffel Tower
Source Roger Viollet
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Eiffel Tower(1889)
Georges Seurat 1859-1891
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Georges SeuratPainting with Light
Chem 160 DLB 11/18/01
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Apres La Jatte 10/23/01

• Divisionism
• Seurat
• Signac
• Pissaro
• Fauvism
• Matisse
• Derain
• Representations of Motion
• Duchamp
• Futurism
• Time lapsed photography

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Portrait of Felix Feneon (1890)
Paul Signac (1863-1935)
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Montmartre Sunshine
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
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Montmartre - Misty
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
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Montmartre Night
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
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Fauvism ca. 1905
Andre Derain
Henri Matisse
Maurice de Vlaminick
Albert Marquet
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Life Class at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1898)
Albert Marquet (1875-1947)
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The Pond at Saint-Cucufa (1903)
Maurice de Vlaminick (1876-1958)
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Luxe, Calme et Volupte (1900)
Henri Matisse ( 1869-1954 )
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Boats at Collioure
Andre Derain 1880-1954)
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Boats at Collioures Harbor
Andre Derain 1880-1954
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Mountains at Collioure
Andre Derain (1880 1954)
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La Ciotat Harbor (1906)
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
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Terrrace atLestaque(1908)
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
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Landscape at Cassis (1907)

• Andre Derain (1880-1954)

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Futurism ca. 1905
Umberto Boccioni (1882 1916)
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Portrait of a Young Woman (1909)
Umberto Boccioni (1882 1916)
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Dynamism of a Cyclist
Umberto Boccioni (1882 1916)
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Dynamism of a Soccer Player
Umberto Boccioni (1882 1916)
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Elasticity (1912)
Umberto Boccioni (1882 1916)
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Eadweard Muybridge

• http//photo.ucr.edu/
• photographers/muybridge/

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Nude Descendinga Staircase
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)