Georges Seurat

An important Post-Impressionist French painter, Georges Seurat moved away from the obvious spontaneity and quickness of Impressionism and developed a structured, more monumental art to depict modern urban life. For several of his large compositions, Seurat painted many small studies. He is chiefly remembered as the pioneer of the Neo-Impressionist technique commonly known as Divisionism, or Pointillism, an approach associated with a softly flickering surface of small dots of colour. His innovations derived from new quasi-scientific theories about colour and expression. Initially, he believed that great modern art would show contemporary life in ways similar to classical art. His success quickly propelled him to the forefront of the Parisian avant-garde. His triumph was short-lived, as after barely a decade of mature work he died at the age of only 31. His new technique exerted a considerable influence over Neo-Impressionist artists such as Camille Pissarro, Henri Cross, and Paul Signac.