Italian version

SEURAT, GEORGES (1859-1891), was a French artist who developed a System of painting called pointillism. Instead of using brushstrokes, Seurat painted uniform-sized dots of brilliant color side by side.

Seen from a distance, the dots seem to merge and suggest other equally bright colors.

Pointillism resulted in simplifìed forms to the extent that human figures appear impersonal and robotlike.

These qualities appear in his Sunday Afternoon on thè Island of La Grande Jatte (1886). Seurat was influenced by the impressionist painters, especially Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

He used the bright colors of the impressionists and also their subjects—artists' studios, circus scenes, and harbors and seashores. But Seurat rejected the casual, relaxed approach of the impressionists and their attempts to portray what the eye sees at a glance.

To fìnd a more controlied, scientific approach, Seurat studied the the-ories on color and light of the French physicist Eugène Chevreul and the French artist Eugène Delacroix.

When La Grande Jatte appeared in an exhibition of impressionist art in 1886, it attracted several painters to pointillism. As a group, these painters became know nas neoimpressionists.

They included Henri Cross, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Signac, the spokesman of the movement.

The neoimpressionists influenced many painters of the early 1900's, including the fauves, the futurists, and thè German expressionists.

Seurat was born in Paris. He kept to himself, and few details are known of his personal life. He painted almost constantly but completed few works. Seurat died of diphtheria at the age of 31.

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