Seurat Art Literacy Presentation

Objectives:

Learn about the style of art known as pointillism and the artist who created it (Georges Seurat).

Vocabulary:

Pointillism, dots, color mixing, pure color, combine, arrange, shape, texture

Artist Biography:     Show picture #1 of Georges Seurat

    Georges Seurat was born in Paris, France on December 2, 1859. That is over 150 years ago. He began to draw when he was very young. When he was 16 he took an art class which made him later enroll in a special art school. Four years later he served in the military and that’s where he began to draw and paint pictures of the beaches and other outdoor scenes. At age 25 Seurat worked on one of his most famous paintings called "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." During Seurat’s last art exhibit he became very ill and died at the age of 31. George Seurat had completed seven major paintings, 40 smaller paintings or sketches, and approximately 500 drawings.

SHOW PAINTINGS-

The Seine and la Grande Jatte – Springtime- picture #2 & #3

1. Show the students a small portion of the print up close. Ask the students what they see (small dots of color). ABOVE
2. Then show the entire painting. The students will then see that the small dots of color create an image. This is called pointillism. The pointillism technique was introduced by Georges Seurat. BELOW

·         1888- Seurat was 29 years old

·         Size: approx. 2 feet by 3 feet

·         Ask students what different things they see (man, boat, building, tree, river etc.)

·         What colors do you see that Seurat used?

The Circus- picture #4 & #5

• 1891 – this was his last painting, Seurat died before completing it.
• Size: approx 6 ft by 5 feet
• During this time Circus’ were a big thing. He tried to make it feel as if you were there.
•  Seurat used 4 main pure colors. Ask the students to try to identify them (yellow, white, red and blue)
•   Show close up views picture #5. The actual painting would have a lot of texture to it, with all the painted dots.
• Point out that he also painted the blue frame as part of the artwork

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (referred to as “Sunday afternoon”)-picture #6

• 1884-1885- took almost 2 yrs to complete
• size: approx- 6.5 feet by 10 feet
• dots were so small that it included about 3.5 million dots
• Before painting this Seurat made more than 200 sketches to prepare for the final piece
• Seurat repeated shapes over and over again. Note the umbrella- count the different sizes and notice the curve of the boat sail as similar to the umbrellas and the curve of the dog’s tail. The tree trunks, the men’s tall hats and some of the people are similar cylinders.

Project:

What you need:

·         Watercolors

·         Q-tips

·         paper

·         Little cups of water (1 cup to 2 students)

*Have students put their name on the back of the paper before beginning*

Step 1- Sketch landscape with a pencil (older grades) OR hand out ready-made landscape sketches (younger grades)

Step 2- Wet the paint with a brush, dip Q-tip in water and dip into the paint.

Step 3- Press down lightly for small dots, more pressure for larger dots.

Step 4- Have the students try to fill as much of the paper as possible with color.

Step 5- Place paintings in area to dry.