________________________________________________________________ Art Masterpiece: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of

Le Grande Jatte, 1884-1886 Georges Seurat 1859 - 1891

Keywords: Pointillism, Neoimpressionism Grade: Fifth Activity: Pointillist Landscape Scene Meet the Artist:

• He was born in France, in 1859, to a family that supported his desire to be an artist. He received art schooling in Paris.

• Initially rejected by the Impressionist artists of the day, he decided to associate with other artists and created a new style that was the "new" impressionism. Impressionists painted in a manner that the painting was the image you see if you just took a quick look at it. Neo-Impressionists painted so that it was more orderly, more scientific.

• Eventually, his artwork was titled Pointillism (although he never cared for this title). In Pointillism, the artist uses dots or dashes to complete a picture. The paintings tend to look grainy, up close one would only see "points" or small dashes, from farther away and a picture emerges.

• He used primary colors and created secondary colors by painting two colors very close to each other in small dots. Blue and red painted densely will appear purple.

• His paintings were very large and he painted only a handful of complete paintings in his lifetime and 60 smaller paintings. He did sketch many others, though. This was in part due to his Neo-Impressionism. He sought to make every inch of the canvas perfect. He sometimes took years to finish a pointing.

• He died at an early age in 1891 from what many believed to be diphtheria, a disease of the respiratory system that no longer affects us, largely due to vaccinations and improved living conditions and hygiene.

Questions about A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Le Grande Jatte

• What would you name this painting? • What colors do you see? Are they cool colors or warm colors? • Is it realistic or dreamy, or both? • How does it look when you are right in front of it, and when sitting at the

tables? • What is happening in the painting?

Activity Pointillist Landscape Scene Supplies Red, blue, yellow and black tempura paints Cotton swabs Drawing paper Directions Sketch a basic landscape with a pencil. Use cotton swabs to create small dots. DO NOT MIX colors. To make a small dot, press lightly, press harder to make a large dot. To make a light color, use a small dot to allow white to show around it. To darken a color, use a small dot of black beside it. Fill us most of the paper with color. To get a tiny dot, remove the cotton and use the end of the swab.