Pointillism: Featured Works

Georges Seurat developed Pointillism (at first called “Divisionism,” now a more technical term) along with Paul Signac as a reaction to both Impressionism and developments in optometric theory. Although Pointillism and Impressionism both contradict the rigid, skill-based values of Neoclassicism, the two movements are also, in some ways, complete opposites. Impressionist artists like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir sought to capture fleeting, ephemeral moments of light by painting outdoors, not producing sketches or underpaintings, and using loose, thick brushstrokes. Seurat and Signac wanted, instead, to apply extremely precise, calculated, tiny dots of color, believing that the color could mix in the viewers’ eyes and brains instead of on the artist’s palate.

You can read more about the backstory of the preeminent Pointillist work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, at my.meural.com/editorial/37.