Seurat, Monet, and Pissarro: Different Opinions in Art
Post-Impressionism saw the creation of many different styles that diverged in both style and subject from that of the Impressionists while still maintaining certain similarities to the artistic movement that preceded it. In the early work of Seurat, his drawings and paintings depicted a different side of industry than that of the earlier Impressionists. While Seurat used his drawings as a type of social commentary describing the negative effects of industry on the worker in France, earlier Impressionists such as Monet and Pissarro painted factories in a way that positively depicted industry in France during the mid to late nineteenth century. The differences in each others paintings of factories and machinery show the difference in Seurat’s view of industry and the Impressionists view in their works.
Seurat showed his negative bias toward French industrialization in works such as Locomotive and Men Outside Factory. These works, while only drawings, show how Seurat thought industrialization “stamps its impress upon land and space” as Herbert puts it in Seurat (Herbert 75). Herbert accurately describes how Seurat felt about industrialization and Seurat shows industrialization's “stamp” on both nature and the simple worker through these two drawings. On the other hand, Monet and Pissarro among other Impressionists took a different view of industrialization in their works. Both Monet’s La Gare Saint-Lazare Paris 
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and Pissarro’s The River Oise Near Pontoise depict signs of French industrializations such as factories and trains but do so in a way that makes machines seem to be in harmony with the nature around it. Unlike Seurat’s view that industry destroys nature and individuality of the worker, Monet and Pissarro paint scenes which disagree with this view of industry.
By taking a closer look at the drawings of Seurat and the paintings of Monet and Pissarro, it is easy to compare the similarities and differences between these artists view of industry through their works. Comparing both Seurat’s Locomotive and Monet’s La Gare Saint-Lazare Paris, the viewer can see only similarities in content and not style. While both works depict scenes of trains, but through Seurat’s ability to utilize black and grey, he creates a locomotive that is monumental. The train stands out creating a sense of monstrosity as well. Monet, on the other hand, incorporates his trains with other figures in the scene. His trains are not monumental because of the lack of focus on them. Because of the figures and buildings presented in the scene, Monet takes attention away from the train while at the same time reducing the overall monumentality. Because of this, Seurat depicts a scene in which he negatively is commenting on the train and industry through his style and Monet seems to rather be more positive in his depiction of industry.
In the same way, comparing Seurat’s Men Outside Factory to Pissarro’s The River Oise Near Pontoise s
has the same differences in opinion regarding industry as Monet and Seurat. This time though, the two artists focus on factories rather than locomotives.
Pissarro’s opinion of factories is defined in Zimmerman’s study Seurat when he states that “Pissaro did not see industrial installations as a threat to the beauty of the countryside” (Zimmerman 76). This opinion manifests itself in the painting The River Oise Near Pontoise. Pissarro does not paint the factory to be a “threat” to nature, but he incorporates the factory into nature without showing any of the effects that industrialization has upon the landscape. The “beauty of the countryside” is therefore unaffected. Pissarro simply places the factory far in the background behind the beauty of nature. Unlike this, Seurat does not show nature at all, but rather places four figures in the foreground and the factory in the background. Again he uses silhouettes to represent the people. This representation shows not only the factories destruction of nature as there is no nature present, but also shows the de-individualization of the worker. Because of this, the viewer can see how Seurat viewed the factory and industry parts of society that took their toll on both nature and the simple worker. On the other hand, Pissarro viewed the factory as “the ultimate source of wealth and opportunity” (Zimmerman 76).