Georges Seurat, Pierrot and Colombine, 1887-88, Conté crayon on paper, 9-3/4 x 12-5/16", The Kasama Nichido Museum of Art. |
The Masterful Drawings and Project Studies of Georges Seurat |
Georges Seurat, At the Concert Européen, 1886-88, Conté crayon and white gouache on paper, 12-1/4 x 9-3/8", The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection, 1934.
Georges Seurat, Embroidery (The Artist's Mother), 1882-83, Conté crayon on paper, 12-5/8 x 9-7/16", The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection. |
Museum of Modern Art Surveying the artist’s oeuvre, from academic training through the emergence and elaboration of his methods in studies made for monumental canvases (such as A Sunday on La Grande Jatte), the exhibition also presents new research on his artistic strategies and materials. In bridging description and evocation, Seurat masses tones to abstract figures, weaves skeins of conté crayon to test limits of decipherable space, and engages with the Parisian metropolis, illuminating urban types, revealing the ever-expanding industrial suburbs, and offering a tour through the world of nineteenth century popular entertainment. Once described as “the most beautiful painter’s drawings in existence,” Georges Seurat’s mysterious and luminous works on paper played a crucial role in his short, vibrant career. This comprehensive exhibition — the first in almost 25 years to focus exclusively on Seurat’s drawings — will present over 135 works, primarily the artist’s incomparable conté drawings along with a small selection of oil sketches and paintings. His dramatization of the relationship between light and shadow resulted in a distinct body of work. Though Seurat is best known as the inventor of pointillism, this exhibition demonstrates his achievement as a draftsman and the significance of his working methods and themes for the art of the 20th century. The exhibition was organized by Jodi Hauptman, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings. Seurat (December 2, 1859-March 29, 1891) was the founder of Neo-impressionism. His large work Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is one of the icons of 19th century painting. He was born to a well-off family in Paris. His father was a legal official and a native of Champagne; his mother was Parisian. Seurat first studied art with Justin Lequien, a sculptor. Seurat attended the École des Beaux-Arts in 1878 and 1879. After a year of service at Brest military academy, he returned to Paris in 1880. He shared a small studio on the Left Bank with two student friends before moving to a studio of his own. For the next two years he devoted himself to mastering the art of black and white drawing. He spent 1883 on his first major painting — a huge canvas titled Bathing at Asnières. After his painting was rejected by the Paris Salon, Seurat turned away from such establishments, instead allying himself with the independent artists of Paris. In 1884 he and other artists (including Maximilien Luce) formed the Société des Artistes Indépendants. There he met and befriended fellow artist Paul Signac. Seurat shared his new ideas about pointillism with Signac, who subsequently painted in the same idiom. In the summer of 1884 Seurat began work on his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which took him two years to complete. Later he moved from the Boulevard de Clichy to a quieter studio nearby, where he lived secretly with a young model, Madeleine Knobloch. In February 1890 she gave birth to his son. It was not until two days before his death that he introduced his young family to his parents. Shortly after his death, Madeleine gave birth to his second son, whose name is unknown. Seurat died from a form of meningitis, and was buried in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. His last ambitious work, The Circus, was left unfinished at the time of his death. |
Georges Seurat, Drawbridge, 1882-83, Conté crayon and white chalk on paper, 9-5/8 x 12-1/4", Collection of Dian Woodner, |
