seurat

1883-84 ; "Bathing at Asnières

The picture was exhibited at the first Salon des Indépendants in 1884 and in 1886 was one of the `Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of ParisToo original it received harsh criticism. The critic in an American paper who described Une Baignade as the product of `a vulgar, coarse and commonplace mind' seems with every epithet to present the exact opposite opinion to that with which the work is regarded now.

Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,1884–86

Using newly discovered optical and color theories, Seurat rendered his subject by placing tiny, precise brush strokes of different colors close to one another so that they blend at a distance. Art critics subsequently named this technique Divisionism, or Pointillism

Seurat Le Chahut 1889-90

This exuberance, however, does not conceal the extreme rigor of the composition. Seurat inscribes his network of diagonals on a regular geometrical background. A figure in the foreground stabilizes the composition,Between background and foreground breaks occur. Seurat arranges in the intermediary space of Le Chahut a series of arc-shaped curves created by the dancers legs. ``

Van Gogh Potato Eaters 1885

On the eve of his discovering impressionism, Van Gogh saw himself as a painter of peasant life - a simple-hearted, popular alternative to the urban painter-flaneur whom Baudelaire characterised as the painter of modern life. "By continually observing peasant life, at all hours of the day," he wrote to Theo, "I have become so involved in it that I rarely think of anything else."

Van Gogh Starry Night 1889

Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in an Asylum at Saint-Remy in 1889.