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Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
Georges Seurat - La Luzerne, Saint Denis 1886La Luzerne, Saint Denis |
Johannes Vermeer - The Girl with a Pearl Earring 1665. It is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear. ArtsViewer.com |
From National Galleries of Scotland:
Seurat's use of short, unblended, strongly coloured brushstrokes has created a vivid and vibrant work. Distant farm buildings and houses are seen across a field of alfalfa (luzerne), punctuated throughout by red poppy flowers. This is part of the broad plain, which in the nineteenth century, still separated Paris from Saint-Denis (now a northern suburb of the capital). It is a fascinating example of the painting technique Seurat developed, called 'divisionism' or 'pointillism'. The English artist and influential critic Roger Fry (1866-1934) owned this painting and was instrumental in introducing works of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to the British public.