I was assigned to present the French Post-Impressionist painter Georges
Seurat to my son's second-grade class.
Nicknamed "le notaire" (the notary) for his immaculate attention to his appearance,
Seurat was temperamentally suited for a scientific approach to art (3).
The Neo-Impressionist project that Signac led by default after
Seurat's death in 1891 oozed with modernity well into the twentieth century.
For his art
Seurat neglected his friendships, lover, child, and, ultimately and most unwisely, his health.
Intrigued by the absence in almost every reproduction of the white moderne frame
Seurat designed for LGJ (despite the fact that he'd painted a portrait of his painting in its bespoke outfitting in Les Poseuses, 1887-88, a background before which bare models arrange themselves), Molzan noted that "Hesse's frame can never be edited out of photographic reproductions as is done with
Seurat's painting.
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim it is a complex production which sees a fictionalised
Seurat immersed in concentration while painting the masterpiece.
It's all about perspective, which, ironically,
Seurat was derided for removing from his paintings.
The musical takes two distinct halves: the first, set in 1884, sees the objects of
Seurat's painting come to life in a world where art is everything.
The latter exhibition features nearly 100 masterpieces, ranging from rare Renaissance portraits by Jean and Francois Clouet to the stellar 19th-century works of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Delacroix to Degas, Cezanne, and
Seurat. A majority of these works have never been exhibited in the U.S., as the Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum oversees one of the oldest and most extensive collections of works on paper in the world.
Art critic Jules Christophe, writing after the death of
Seurat in La Plume, September 1, 1891
Yes, the dots." At other times he suggests ideas to think about and, most often, he supplies information about the painting or
Seurat's other works.
The Sondheim musical Sunday in the ParkWith George is based on a
Seurat painting.