impressionist-ART.com
Impressionism & Post-Impressionism
Georges Seurat - The Harbour and the Quays at Port-en-Bessin 1888The Harbour and the Quays at Port-en-Bessin |
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 Minneapolis Institute of Arts:
In the summer of 1888, Georges Seurat worked in Port-en-Bessin, a small fishing village in Normandy. He painted six views of the seaport and its surrounding countryside. His intention was "to translate as exactly as possible the luminosity of the open air, with all its nuances." Although Seurat shared the Impressionists' goal of translating nature's light and color, he also wished to make Impressionism more precise. He wanted to replace its spontaneous, improvisational qualities with a more systematic, objective approach that could reflect the essential structures of a landscape, not just its transitory effects. To this end, Seurat developed an unusual new technique, variously called pointillism, divisionism, or Neo-Impressionism. He juxtaposed small dots of pigment according to his interpretation of scientific theories of color and optics. His followers, like Paul Signac, continued the pointillist style after Seurat's early death from pneumonia.