Conclusion
While many claimed that industry was just the progression of society, the worker was hurt by the oncome of industry on the countryside. So, was the worker just a “victim of progression” as Zimmerman states in Seurat and the Art Theory of his Time? (Zimmerman 77). But, in many of Seurat’s early works, the worker was a victim of progress, mainly the industrial revolution. Previously, the life of the worker was difficult, but he maintained a sense of individuality which was apparent in Seurat’s drawings and paintings of farm workers. Seurat viewed the worker at this point as having a sense of identity, and a sense of happiness because of it. As industry invaded the French countryside, the individual became only a part of industry, an interchangeable part with no identity. Without a sense of identity, the worker ultimately was replaced by factories and machines. Seurat viewed this change as detrimental to the worker and as his drawings progressed through his early career, a more negative undertone was placed as industry became more a part of these drawings. As the presence of the worker diminished in his works, Seurat negatively commented on industrialization’s role in the decrease in individuality among workers. Ultimately, Seurat viewed the worker as just another interchangeable part of the machine known as the industrial revolution.