Georges Seurat, who has seen and been…

Georges Seurat, who has seen and been strongly influenced by the monumental symbolic paintings of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, now meets the ninety-eight-year-old chemist Michel-Eugéne Chevreul.

He experiments with Chevreul's theories of the chromatic circle of light and studies the effects that can be achieved with the three primary colors, yellow, red, and blue, and their complements.

Seurat is moving away from the empirical standpoint of Impressionism toward a technique and a form that are increasingly deliberately designed.

For his large composition Baignade, Asniéres, (1883-84, Bathing at Asniéres, National Gallery, London) he uses small, detached strokes of pure color too small to be distinguished when looking at the entire work but making the painting shimmer with brilliance.

When the jury of the Salon refuses the picture in 1884, Seurat decides to participate in the foundation of the Groupe des Artistes Indépendants, where he shows his Baignade in June.

Seurat falls in with Paul Signac (who is to become his chief disciple), and paints many rough sketches on small boards in preparation for his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

In December 1884, he exhibits the Baignade again, with the newly founded Société des Artistes Indépendants (which is to be of immense influence in the development of modern art.)