While Georges Seurat was well known for his work in color theory and in pointillism, prior to this breakthrough of his he was a world-renowned painter and drawer. Most people know his later work, but this online exhibition focuses greatly on his earlier works, especially his drawings. Thomson explains these years perfectly in his study Seurat when he states that "drawing is an appropriate medium for the analysis of ones environment, for the preliminary observation of motifs, and Seurat used the years 1881 to 1883 to develop his drawing and simultaneously explore the subjects of everyday life" (Thomson 31). This accurately describes the early works of Georges Seurat and his focus on the combination of French farmers and industry. His interest in these everyday occurrences can be explained by knowing his life during the time period. As a result of many family ties, Seurat had the ability to live in places around the city of Paris such as the suburbs around the Seine (Zimmerman 62). This ability allowed Seurat to study the life of the simple worker while at the same time observe the changes that affected the landscape because of industrialization. For years he would be able to move around because of family wealth and ties. During the early 1880's in the suburbs, he developed his drawing style and came to be known as one of the best drawers in France at the time. Not until his later accomplishments, pointillism, did his drawing become less important to him.

For more information on the entire life of Georges Seurat, visit the Grove Art Online Encyclopedia on the web.

The effects of industrialization on his subjects soon affected Seurat's rendering of them as individuals as seen in the next two drawings by Seurat. In this page a more in depth analysis will be done of these two drawings. Signs of industry and factories begin to infiltrate Seurat's depictions of the worker and he began to disregard their individuality. In the pieces The Harvester and Working Peasant Woman, Seurat portrayed two agricultural workers while working. The portrayal of these figures, though, tends to be less individualized than in other previous works, notably the Mower and Peasant Gathering Plants. Although each character is placed alone and inhabits all of the space of the canvas, Seurat did not give the viewer any detail of the work the figure is doing. In both drawings, the figure is bent over but lacks any representation of work being done as the mower and the peasant gathering plants are in Seurat's other works. Also, neither figure has any facial features, making each less individual and more of just a universal farm worker. Because of this lack of detail, in both The Harvester and Working Peasant Woman, both figures are so similar that Seurat made it possible to interchange each figure in both drawings, like interchangeable parts in a factory. Because this is possible, Seurat further comments on the de-individualization that occurs because of the onset of industry, but Seurat still allows these workers to maintain some sense of individuality. While both figures lack detail, they do both inhabit all of the space on the canvas. This shows Seurat's high regard for the individual worker even while industry de-individualized the worker as time progresses.

The Locomotive and the Drawbridge While these two works were drawn in 1882 during the year in which Seurat drew mostly farm workers, these are two drawings which show Seurat's view of industry at an earlier point in his career than the Steamboat. The point of view, thought, did not change much between 1882 to 1884. These drawings show Seurat's disdain for industrialization and his sympathy for the worker who has been transformed into machinery. Because Seurat has chosen to transform the once simple, agricultural worker into a machine, he comments on the effect that industry has on the individual worker. As Zimmerman states in his book Seurat, "craftsmen began to lose their independence as they accepted orders from factories and department stores" (Zimmerman 75). Seurat took note of this occurrence in society, and his drawings depict his feelings toward both the worker and industrialization. Without independence for the worker, he lost his individuality and his place within the economy and eventually within the workplace. Like so, both the Locomotive and Drawbridge show how Seurat negatively commented on the social implications that would transform the simple worker into just another part of industry.]]> 2006-11-30T16:08:35Z 2004-12-13T23:03:50Z tag:blogs.princeton.edu,2004:/writingart2//23.384 2004-12-13T23:03:50Z

Throughout the early stages of Seurat's career, many French artists influenced both his style and technique in drawing and painting. While at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, both Delacroix and Ingres strongly influenced the way in which he painted and drew. The early 1880's saw influences such as Redon, Rembrandt, and Courbet, but none had a stronger impact on Seurat's style during the time then Millet. During the years 1880 to 1883, Seurat paid particular attention to the peasant farm worker. The way in which he depicted each worker was very unique, but at the same time showed similarities to art works Millet had done. As Herbert puts it, Millet was the "peasant master" (Herbert 64), and Seurat took note of his abilities when painting rural subjects. Resemblances can be found in many of each others works.
By taking a look at both Millet's The Gleaners, and Seurat's Working Peasant Woman, the parallels can be seen almost immediately. Both subjects are almost identical, a woman or women placed in the center of the canvas in a bent down position. While the clothing in Seurat's is not drawn in detail, the ragged skirt with a simple whit shirt and hat resemble that of the clothing worn by the women in Millet's drawing. Although each picture has similarities, there are also many differences present. Within Millet's depiction, a greater focus is found on the background than on the actual women. Because of Millet's history as a landscape artist from the Barbizon school, it is easy to conclude that his main focus in the painting was the farm and not the women. On the other hand, Seurat chose to disregard all other details other than the woman in his drawing. No landscape is present and the woman is drawn to take up the entire canvas. Also, the job each woman performs is different. While each does work, the detail shown in Millet's work allows the viewer to better understand their place in society. Unlike Millet's, Seurat's woman is different for as Thomson states in his study Seurat, "their task is shown, but their position in society is not investigated" (Thomson 60). Without the detail in the background, this woman could be peasant or bourgeoisie woman in her garden. Social position is not clear within this drawing unlike it is in Millet's.
Like The Gleaners and Working Peasant Woman, Millet and Seurat share another two paintings which parallel each other even more, Twilight and Peasants in a Field. The similarities between these two go beyond just position, but also style. In each, both Millet and Seurat use shading and shadows in order to depict the night scene. Seurat, using Millet painting to create his own, formatted his drawing in the same manner as Millet. Two peasants stand in the foreground in front of a night sky. While the two share this similarity, the two artists diverge at this point. Instead of having these two figures doing the work, Seurat instead has them observing the peasant and the carriage. Seurat does not show a "visual sigh for the labor of simple people" as Millet does by placing the focus on the simple people working (Zimmerman 65). Instead, Seurat depicts each figure in a very objective way and this can be seen through his style of using silhouettes instead of placing any sort of detail in the figure. Herbert describes the difference between the artists rendering of figures faces well when he states that "instead of Millet's 'typical faces', Seurat painted 'facelessness'" (Herbert 78). The "facelessness" that accompanies Seurat's figures creates this objective sense of the figures and also states that Seurat did not feel any sort of sympathy for the worker as Millet most likely did through these paintings.

Anyways, I chose to do Seurat because he was an unbelievable artist. In his short life he managed to create pieces of artwork that people still marvel at today. While his most famous work, pointilism, would be what most people focus on when looking at the life of Seurat, I chose to look at his earlier works which amaze me too. The drawings not only show his artistic ability, but they also show how much he found interest in everyday life. I started thinking when I realized this, maybe Seurat was trying to say something in his drawings. But what? Well, as you can see, I thought he was saying that industry was not the way France should go. After this thought, everything else just seemed to fall in place....

Bibliography

I. Seurat Art Works:

1. Seurat, Georges. 1882-83. "Drawbridge". Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Simon Collection, New City.

2. Seurat, Georges. 1881. "The Harvester". Jacques Rodrigues-Henriques Collection.

3. Seurat, Georges. 1882-83. "Locomotive". Charles Gillet Collection, Lyon.

4. Seurat, Georges. 1882. "Men Erecting Posts". Collection of Mrs. W. Averell Harriman, Washington D.C.

5. Seurat, Georges. 1882-83. "Men Outside Factory". Musee du Lourve, Paris.

6. Seurat, Georges. 1879-80. "Mower". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

7. Seurat Georges. 1881-82. "Peasant Gathering Plants". British Museum, London.

8. Seurat, Georges. 1882. "Peasants in a Field". Musee de Louvre, Paris.

9. Seurat, Georges. 1881. "The Roadmenders". Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Pennsylvania.

10. Seurat, Georges. 1884. "Steamboat". The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.

11. Seurat, Georges. 1882. "Working Peasant Woman". Private Collection.

II. Other Works Cited:

1. Broude, Norma. Georges Seurat. New York: Rizzoli, 1992.

2. Courthion, Pierre. Georges Seurat. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988. 52, 58, 60, 72.

3. Helion, Jean. "Seurat as a Predecessor." Burlington Magazine 69 (1936): 4.

4. Herbert, Robert L. "Independent Drawings." Georges Seurat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.

5. Herbert, Robert L. Seurat's Drawings. New York: Sherwood Publishers INC., 1962.

6. Skrapits, Joseph C. "Shades of Gray: The Drawings of George Seurat." American Artist 56. 596 (1992): 7-14.

7. Thomson, Richard. Seurat. Oxford: Phaidon, 1985.

8. Zimmerman, Michael F. Seurat. Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1991.

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.

As industry invaded the workers life, Seurat began to depict the worker in more negative way as a result. In his later works, the worker transforms entirely into the machine. As industry became a more integral part in the life of the worker, the average human worker vanishes entirely, only to be replaced by the machine which is seen in Seurat's drawings of machines and factories. The individual worker no longer exists, but the worker transformed into the machine. Seurat noticed this great change and his drawings soon took note of this transformation. In drawings such as Steamboat, the natural progression of industrialization reached its peak, the total nonexistence of the worker, just the machine. In this work, Seurat presents a steamboat at work, but again the absence of people allows Seurat to comment on the ongoing industrialization. By going to the extreme in his portrayal of the worker, leaving out the human worker entirely, all individualization and humanization for the worker is lost. In this drawing, Seurat drew the boat "without consideration for taste, prettiness, or normality" as Helion states in "Seurat as a Predecessor" (Helion 10). Because Seurat disregards "taste" and "prettiness" in this drawing, he is able to characterize these machines as monstrous and ugly. Since this work displays a machine that is part of the industrial revolution, Seurat shows how ugly the industrial revolution became because of the absence of the worker. With the replacement of the worker by the steamboat, Seurat shows his disdain for industry in France because the worker simply becomes "one of the many cogs of the industrial revolution" (Herbert 89).

Seurat furthered this notion of the worker becoming only "one of the many cogs in the machinery of the industrial revolution" as Herbert states in Seurat's Drawings in his work Men Outside Factory (Herbert, Seurat's Drawings 89). As deduced from the title, this drawing shows a group of workers, gathered in a group, in front of a factory. By placing the workers in a group, Seurat again can not focus on the individual worker. Along with the focus being on the group and not on the individual, Seurat drew the figures as silhouettes without any detail. By drawing this way, it is difficult to differentiate the workers from each other. Because Seurat did this, the focus of the drawing is placed on the group rather than the individual and creates the sense that each worker is again an interchangeable part of the machine of industry. Even though Hebert states that these workers within the group were "treated with dignity", it seems that Seurat's portrayal becomes less dignified as he incorporates industry within his paintings more often (Herbert Seurat 40). Within Men Outside Factory, the men become less individualized which creates a less dignified scene when compared to Seurat's portrayal of farm workers. Because Seurat does not create individuals but rather is portraying the worker as part of the whole, he is commenting negatively on the implications that industry had for the worker. Because of the placement of a factory in the background, Seurat again shows how factories had negative implications for the worker. Through Men Outside Factory, Seurat connects the de-individualization and dehumanization of the worker as a direct result of industry and its repercussions for the average worker.

The negative aspects of industry on the worker become even more apparent in Men Driving Stakes and Road Menders because Seurat creates the worker as less of an individual and more as part of a machine. Both paintings show men constructing roads in order to improve transportation and commerce, two elements of the industrialization of France. Because of the "gradual encroachment of the metropolis on the countryside", ventures such as constructing roads were vital (Zimmerman 73). Unlike the agricultural jobs portrayed in Seurat's other works, these workers are integrating into the industrial revolution because of their work which were so vital to the industrial revolution. The increased relation to industry made Seurat depict the worker in a different light. Instead of portraying only one worker at a time, the workers are now put alongside other workers. By being part of a group, Seurat comments on the workers becoming a part of the machine of industry. Because of this, the worker loses his individuality gradually and becomes even more of an interchangeable part. While the men are presented in a group, each worker in the group has his own individual features that separate himself from the group. In Road Menders, Seurat portrayed each worker in a different position, doing a different part of the task at hand, building the road. Because Seurat paid particular attention to the work of each figure, there still remains a sense of individuality with each worker. Therefore, industry has not totally revolutionized the working-class people, but as time progresses, individuality becomes less apparent.

Although Seurat focused greatly on the worker earlier in his career, as industry began to play a greater role French economics and life, Seurat's depiction of the worker changed as a result which led to the de-individualization of the worker. The work entilted Peasants in the Field shows Seurat's depicition of the worker as a result of industry. While the subject in this piece is similar with the other pieces displaying farm workers, Seurat added two new figures to the piece. These figures stand in the foreground of the piece, while the worker stands in the background and his presence in the drawing diminished. Unlike the previous works, Seurat has not focused on the worker, but he has focused attention on the bourgeois standing in the foreground as Zimmerman states (Zimmerman 77). This focus on the bourgeois rather than workers displays Seurat's attention to the growth of modern life in the world of the workers, specifically the movement of industry to the farm worker. The inclusion of the middle-class worker is only a precursor to the factories that would soon spread into the countryside of France. Industry slowly "encroached" on the rural worker and his life. The worker becomes less important because of this, as Seurat depicts by showing the farmer in the background. The workers identity is then unknown because of industry and therefore industrialization becomes a problem for the worker within Seurat's paintings.

While in his later works Seurat depicted industry to have a negative impact on the worker, his earlier works show a more positive and individual view of the working-class farmer in late nineteenth-century France. Seurat's view of the farmer can be seen in his earlier drawings. In these drawings, Seurat placed the workers by themselves while at work as in his piece Peasant Gathering Plants. In this work, Seurat chose to portray a worker and not much else. The title of the piece, Peasant Gathering Plants, gives the viewer enough information to know what the worker is doing. Although the drawing is very simple, only a silhouette of the worker without any other figures is present, Seurat still managed to individualize the person in the piece. By placing him alone without the presence of any other figures and without a detailed environment, Seurat placed all of the focus on the drawing upon the worker. Also, because Seurat drew the piece early in the 1880's, he fails to incorporate any signs of industrialization in the drawing. Without industrialization and with the attention placed directly on the worker, Seurat created an individual who has not been affected by the on come of industry in his life and created a positive view of the worker.

Similar to Peasant Gathering Plants, in Seurat's piece The Mower he again both individually and positively depicts the farmer of pre-industrialized France and his life without machinery. The job portrayed is an agricultural one, a mower harvesting wheat. While this piece uses color unlike The Peasant Gathering Plants, Seurat still placed all of the attention of the piece on the mower. He is placed in the center of the canvas and the use of color only makes the worker stand out. While Courthion refers to Seurat's figures as "timeless" in his Georges Seurat, he fails to notice how these figures are individuals (Courthion 52).
Although the figure in the Mower does not seem to have individualized characteristics and appears to be "timeless" as Courthion states, Seurat has not dehumanized him in any way. Because he has placed the mower alone and places all of the focus upon the mower, he allows the mower to retain a sense of individuality before the onset of industry which, in this painting, is absent. Within this painting, the absence of industry allows Seurat to show how life was prior to the industrial revolution.

In order to understand why Seurat would negatively comment on industry through his art, we should first look at the rise of industry in late nineteenth-century France. Although industry became an issue before the birth of Seurat, its repercussions were still evident during his life time as industrialization revolutionized the socio-economic statues of France by transforming an agrarian community to one based on machinery. The resulting change in demographics was also significant as 35 percent of the population lived in cities in 1888 as opposed to only 24 percent in 1843, showing a mass migration to the cities during this time period of 1843 until 1888 (Thomson 52). Living in the suburbs of Paris throughout most of these years, Seurat was able to observe the change in population density in the city as he grew older. This was significant because with this migration to Paris, serious problems arose such as pollution and over-population. From this vantage point, Seurat saw the "gradual encroachment of the metropolis on the countryside" that Zimmerman alludes to in Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time (Zimmerman 73). The "encroachment" benefited the economy of France, but it had many negative social implications for the working class. Specifically, during the time in which these advances in industry occurred, debates about "La Question Sociale" regarding the problems of the working-class became relevant in Parisian politics (Thomson 53). With these debates arising from the problems of industrialization, Seurat's proximity to the problem forced him to take notice of societal changes. Because of his attention, through the years of 1880 to 1884 the subject of Seurat's work dealt with the changes of industry, specifically the role of the worker in French society.

If you want more information on French industrialization, visit this site, More on France and Industry ]]>