Georges Seurat: Interpretation of Color Theory
Sarah Sherman, Princeton Class of 2008
On a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago while playing hooky for a day, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’s Cameron Frye stands perplexed in front of the massive painting, tilting his head from side to side. He recognizes the celebrity woman with the umbrella and monkey on a leash painted exactly one century earlier, but as the camera zooms in closer, we see what Cameron finds so intriguing about George Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte (1884-1885). He notices a subtlety in the painting he couldn’t take away from printed versions of this painting that he would have undoubtedly seen in his art history curriculum—that is, if he ever went to class. Standing just inches away, he realizes that the millions of dots strategically placed on the canvas seamlessly create a larger image, defining Seurat’s hallmark pointillist technique.
The term pointillism was coined in 1886 by art critic Flix Fnon to describe George Seurat’s “Peinture au Point,” or painting of points (Osborne). Over time, as other artists adopted a similar style, the term evolved to its modern stage, pointillism. Seurat actually preferred the term divisionism for his artwork which encompassed both the dotting technique and the theory of juxtaposed colors positively interacting with each other. He undoubtedly favored this term because he wanted people to acknowledge that his paintings were more than “points,” as pointillism implies. He held strong beliefs that there exists a precise formula for a successful painting- one that satisfies its viewers’ desire for balance and harmony. A naturally scientific man, he embarked on his exploration of these methods in the late 1800’s with unparalleled methodology. 
He began learning this theory of painting with dots and contrasting colors in the 1870’s, improving it through all his studies leading up to his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte. Naturally, people assume that this painting exhibits the culmination of Seurat’s honed color theories, just as John Gage asserts in The Technique of Seurat: A Reappraisal: “[Seurat] harmonized the colors of La Grande Jatte according to the principles of contrast and analogy drawn largely from the writings of Chevreul and Rood” (Gage 448). Gage was completely incorrect regarding Seurat’s use of color in his masterpiece. While the artist definitely exemplified his recognizable dotting technique in his final presentation, he lacks the same fine-tuned use of color that he had so carefully mastered in his studies. Because the audience was only exposed to the dot-theory in La Grande Jatte, Seurat became known as a pointillist rather than a divisionist, as he would have liked.
Contents
Seurat's Interpretation of Color TheoryIncorporation of Color Theory into Studies
Unsuccessful Color Theory in the Masterpiece
Effect: Seurat is Now Seen as a Pointillist
Gallery
19th Century Color TheoryWhat did the Island of La Grande Jatte Look Like?
Seurat's Frames and Borders
Popular Culture and La Grande Jatte
Works Cited
About the Author
