Pointillism · 1884
Georges Seurat 1859–1891
Art Institute of Chicago · Chicago
Parisians relax on an island in the Seine, built entirely from tiny dots of pure colour — two years of Seurat's pointillist science.
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Chapter 1 of 7
Stand before this monumental canvas and feel its peculiar stillness. In 1884, Georges Seurat spent two full years on this single painting, making over forty preparatory studies. What you see is not brushwork — it is science.
Thousands of tiny, separate dots of pure color that your eye blends into light, shade, and a Sunday afternoon frozen in time.
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