Birth, December 2, 1859
Celebrate the birth of Georges Seurat (pronounced “suh-RAH”) and familiarize students with an interesting style of painting. Born in Paris, France, December 2, 1859, Seurat was one of the inventors of pointillism, a painting style that experiments with pure color and dots rather than brush strokes. In pointillist paintings, facial expression and detailed textures are not as important as capturing the intensity of color and the play of light. Seurat’s most famous pointillist painting is Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, painted in 1886, which depicts a crowd of people enjoying a Sunday afternoon on an island in the Seine River. Shown strolling, fishing, or relaxing on blankets, the people and the surrounding landscape are an exploration and celebration of color.
Pointillists did not mix colors. Instead, they used dots of pure color positioned side by side. Different shades were obtained by varying the intensity, or number of dots, of a particular color in certain areas. When seen from a distance, the viewer’s eyes blend the colors.
Bring in examples of Seurat and pointillist influenced paintings done by Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Jan Vermeer. Many art books contain color reproductions of their work. Encourage students to draw or paint their own pointillist art. In addition to pen and paint, markers work well for pointillist pictures. Before beginning the actual art piece, have students experiment with dot intensity. For example, investigate how adding yellow dots in varying numbers changes a blue or a red dotted area. How much yellow must be added before the viewer’s eye blends the blue and yellow into green? Display student work in a classroom exhibit.
A research project could include an investigation of pointillism in modern technology. The pictures on color television are made with dots of color. The number of pixels, or dots, on a computer’s monitor screen control the clarity and intensity of the images we see. Use a magnifying glass or microscope to look closer at advertisements in magazines or newspapers. Up close most reveal discrete dots of color. Do any of your students have the older kind of computer printer known as “dot matrix”? Before laser and jet ink printers, dot matrix printers printed letters by laying down a series of dots.
By: Francis David
