Georges Seurat Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

The frame [is no longer as in the beginning version] is in a harmony opposed to those of the tones, tints, and lines of the [motif of the] picture.

Georges Seurat
Rood was in my possession the day after the appearance of Philippe Gille's book review, published by 'Le Figaro', 1881 (change of palette). I abandon earth colors from 1882 to 1884. On Pissarro's advice I stop using emerald green

Georges Seurat
Aesthetic:
Art is Harmony.
Harmony is the analogy of opposites, the analogy of similarities of tone, of tint, of line taking account of a dominant and under the influence of the lighting, in combinations that are gay calm or sad

Georges Seurat
I painted like that because I wanted to get through to something new - a kind of painting that was my own.

Georges Seurat
I have told him nothing [an art-journalist in Paris who wrote in 1887: 'Seurat sees his paternity of the theory Neo-Impressionism contested by misinformed critics and unscrupulous comrades'], but what I have always thought: the more of us (Neo-Impressionists) there are, the less originality we will have, and the day when everyone this technique, it will no longer have any value and people will look for something new as is already happening... It is my right to think this and to say it, since I paint in this way [Neo-Impressionistic], only to find a new approach which is my own.

Georges Seurat
I knew van Gogh less intimately. I spoke to him for the first time in 1887 in a popular eatery near 'La Fourche', Avenue de Clichy, [Paris], (closed). A huge windowed room was decorated with his canvases. He exhibited at the 'Independants', [Paris] in 1888, 1889, 1890..

Georges Seurat
Opposites are:
for tone, a more luminous/lighter one for a darker one.
for tint, the complementaries, that is, a certain red opposed to its complementary, etc.
Red — Green
Orange — Blue
Yellow — Violet
for line, those making a right angle.

Georges Seurat
They [the visitors in his studio, praising his work] see poetry in what I have done. No, I apply my method and that is all there is to it.

Georges Seurat
I insist on establishing the following dates indicating my prior paternity, [and the discussions that I held]
1884, 'Grande Jatte' study, exhibition of the Independants
1884-1885, 'Grande Jatte' composition
1885, studies at the 'Grande Jatte' and at Grandcamp; I took up again the 'Grande Jatte' composition October 1886. 4 October [18]85 I make Pissarro's acquaintance at Durand-Rucl's.
1886, January or February, a small canvas by Pissarro, divided and pure color, at Clozet's, the dealer on the Rue de Chateaudun.

Georges Seurat
The art of painting is the Art of hollowing out a canvas.

Georges Seurat
The purity of the spectral element being the keystone of my.... searching for an optical formula on this basis ever, since I held a brush 1876-1884.... having read Charles Blanc in school and therefore knowing Chevreul's laws and Eugene Delacroix's precepts, having read the studies by the same Charles Blanc on the same painter [Delacroix] (in 'Gazette des Beaux-Arts', vol. xvi, if I remember correctly)

Georges Seurat
Art is harmony. Harmony is the analogy of contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, conditioned by the dominate key, and under the influence of a particular light, in gay, calm, or sad combinations.

Georges Seurat
Signac told me of his death this way: 'He [Vincent van Gogh] gave himself a bullet in the ribs; it passed through his body and lodged in his groin. He walked for two kilometers, losing all his blood, and went on to die in his inn'.

Georges Seurat
Gaiety of tone is the luminous dominant, of tint, the warm dominant, of line, lines above the horizontal
Calmness of tone is the equality of dark and light; of tint, of warm and cool, and the horizontal for line.
Sadness of tone is the dark dominant; of tint, the cool dominant, and of line, downward directions.

Georges Seurat
In conclusion I am going to give you the aesthetic and technical note that concludes Mr. Christophe's piece and which originated with me; I am modifying it a little, not having been well understood by the printer.

Georges Seurat
The means of expression is the optical mixture of tones, of tints (of local color and the illuminating color: sun, oil lamp, gas, etc.), that is, of the lights and of their reactions (shadows) following the laws of contrast, of gradation, of irradiation.

Georges Seurat