Analysis of Seurats Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte and Gauguins The Day of the Gods - Essay Example

Comparison Analysis of George Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1886,and Paul Gauguin, The Day of the Gods, 1894 George Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1886 (Fig. 1) and Paul Gauguin’s The Day of the Gods, 1894 (Fig. 2) have similar themes although they are balanced right on the edge between the work of the Impressionists and the post-Impressionists. The similarity of their theme allows the viewer to take in the differences that erupted between the soft, pointillist details of Seurat to the bold strokes of color that were driven under the brush of Gauguin. The paintings both depict the cultural gathering that a body of water can evoke. However, the gathering within the work of Seurat is defined by the formal and modest visage of the 19th century while Gauguin’s work reveals the naturalistic culture of Tahiti. The two pieces allow the viewer a distinct opportunity to see a transition between one form of painting to the next. The style of painting that George Seurat is most known for is that of pointillism. Pointillism is defined by a technique of applying paint where the artist uses small dots of color to shade and move the eye as if to create actually rounded and formed figures. The eyes create the illusion of the image as the tiny dots are blended, revealing the imagery through a trick of the eye. To look at a pointillist painting up close is to see nothing but a mass of dots, but when one stands back, the dots combine to create the intended imagery. Seurat had a tremendous scientific interest in the way in which they eye sees color. In the 1880’s, Seurat and Paul Signet developed pointillism as a way of stretching the scientific theories of the visually representation reinterpreted through specific, rigid rules of application. Pointillism is defined by paint that is not mixed on a palate; use of primary colors; individual dots or points of color; brushstrokes that are carefully place and not spontaneous; and rigid compositions (Raczka 17). Paul Gauguin, on the other hand, used beautifully mixed colors that swept across his work with passion and fervor. His style developed through revelations about the concept of expression. Gauguin spent time with Camille Pissarro with whom he exchanged portraits, Gauguin doing one of Pissarro and Pissarro doing one of Gauguin (Fig. 3). Upon examining the work, even in the perfection of his strokes and dimension, Gauguin realized that his work was the inferior as it didn’t hold the same expressiveness that the more simplified, but emotive work of Pissarro had displayed. The lesson that Pissarro had intended was learned and Gauguin spent his next years unlearning all of the technique he had acquired to break down his work to its expressive primitivism (Mathews 38). Where Seurat was looking for a sense of precision that was defined by the science of his technique, Gauguin sought to express what he was painting through the emotion of color and movement. According to Silverman, Gauguin despised Seurat out of jealousy. When Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte (Fig. 1) was revealed, it was heralded as the new, modern art and representative of the next evolution of Impressionism (252). At the same time, Gauguin’s work Women from Arles in the Public Garden (Fig. 4) was unveiled with the intention of revolutionizing painting in another direction, creating a work that was more closely defined by the symbolist classicism that would run under the thematic style adopted by Gauguin (Silverman 250). Symbolism intended to capture what was real, in its gritty natural state. Gauguin was a central figure to the movement, however, he also embraced the nature of the Cloisonnist style. Cloisonnism, as seen his work, The Day of the Gods (Fig. 2), is developed through dark outlines that separate bold colored flat shapes which also enhanced the primitivism. Gauguin was also central to the Synthetism movement whereby, according to Chipp, Selz, and Taylor, is “to simply in the sense of rendering intelligible” (105). The shapes were broken down into a simplified rendering of their make, giving them a naturalized feel that was infused by the emotion o the artist (Silverman 250). To look at the two pieces of work is to see that despite their similar themes, the styles of the work is drastically different. The figures in the Seurat work are almost stiff, suggesting the movement of life, but stilled by the rigidity of the technique. Despite this evaluation, one can still see some emotion come through some of the figures, as exampled by the young girl sitting behind the older figure just to the right of the center of the painting. You see her head tilted downward, looking at the flowers that she holds in her hand and her emotional context can be guessed because of the way her body is postured. While the actual guess can be left up to the individual viewer, the lack of facial expression and detail does not erase an emotive nature within the work. The brilliance of the work is that even in its apparent rigidity, there is life and emotion that can be pulled from the painting. However, the work that is done by Gauguin is far more expressive and passionate. There is a specificity within the expression of the central figure who is looking at the viewer and inviting them into this event. The washes of color create a sense of the movement of water, rounding out the theme of the work. The water is not merely blue, or a mix of blues as one might most often expect, but it boils with reds and yellows that create a deeper sense of movement. The colors are defined by the darker lines that separate them and are not blended together. Because of the way they are placed, however, a sense of depth, even within the flatness of the imagery, is created. Gauguin was the future, while the work of Seurat never truly caught on amongst painters, most likely due mostly to the tedious nature of pointillism (Raczca 17). Seurat’s work was revered by Van Gogh who tried to emulate his work within his own (Silverman 252). However, the work that was done by Gauguin was in step with a new philosophy that was taking hold of many disciplines across the world. Sigmund Freud, though many thousands miles away from Gauguin, was developing his theories on psychoanalysis which were centered on the eroticism of the dream state. All the while, Gauguin was painting with the same kind of attention to eroticism and revealing the broken imagery that came strikingly close to emoting pure emotional and erotic states (Mathews vii). According to Mathews, Gauguin’s life was straight out of Freudian interpretation “from his loss of his father before his second birthday, to his frequent depiction of phallic symbols as snakes and birds, to his insistence on the health benefits of sexual freedom, to his untimely death from syphilis in 1903 at the age of fifty-four“ (vii). The sensuality with which Gauguin painted was on the cusp of a new sense of philosophical understanding. However, the work of Seurat can be seen for its representation of a world that was still bound by convention and had yet to burst forth into the discovery of open passions and emotional displays. The work of Seurat does represent precision and patience. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte (Fig. 1)took two years to complete with dozens of sketches involved and many afternoons spent studying the scene near the water bank (Chambers, Hood, and Peake 36). Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte (Fig. 1) represents a time that had yet to see the overt sexuality and unrestrained sensibility of life so publicly displayed. There is a sweetness within the work that suggests that the world had very little to worry over and that a Sunday afternoon was a simple a wondrous time. There is no evidence of a gritty side to life within the work, while even in the pleasurable superficial sense of the scene within Gauguin’s work, The Day of the Gods, there is a sense of work as the women carry what appears to be food on their heads. The two male figures are curled in a fetal position in opposing positions on either side of the central female figure giving off a complex impression that is slightly unsettling as much as it suggests rest. This is in sharp contrast to the relaxing day that is portrayed in Seurat’s piece with not a single figure is in an uncomfortable or work related position. Seurat died at the age of 31 and his papers were burnt by his family after his death which left little of the philosophy of his work behind for posterity (Chambers, Hood, and Peake 36). However, it is known that Seurat intended to create a modern look to his work, revealing figures that are representative of the middle class in Paris of the late 19th century (Duchting 36). There is purposely little movement within the work other than a girl who is skipping, however, the movement is created by the placement of shadows that seem to be reminiscent of Japanese color woodcuts which were influential to the Impressionists (Duchting 38). The most important comparison between the two works is defined by a diverse but similar desire by both artists to usher in a more modern style of painting. However, while Seurat was revealing an evolution of painting style at the height of the Impressionist era, Gauguin was ushering in the precursors to the modern period with the expressive use of color and eroticism. Both used a cultural scene near a body of water to comment on the world in which they lived and by modern standards, both lived in very romantic worlds. However, the innocence of Paris at the turn of the century is in deep contrast to exotic Tahiti. The use of color by both artists was brilliant and restrained, however it was done in diverse styles. Both works are indicative of artists who had matured their style and who understood the culture in which they lived. Illustrations Fig. 1 George Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1886. Fig. 2 Paul Gauguin’s The Day of the Gods, 1894. Fig. 3. Portrait of Gauguin by Pissarro and Portrait of Pissarro by Gauguin, 1880. Fig. 4 Paul Gauguin Women from Arles in the Public Garden, 1888. Illustrations Fig. 1. George Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1886; Wikipdia; Web; 2 November 2010. Fig. 2. Paul Gauguin’s The Day of the Gods, 1894; Paul Gauguin: The Complete Works; Web; 2 November 2010. Fig. 3. Portrait of Gauguin by Pissarro and Portrait of Pissarro by Gauguin, 1880; Nancy Mathews Paul Gauguin: An Erotic Life (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press), 2001; Print. Fig. 4 Paul Gauguin Women from Arles in the Public Garden, 1888. Famous Painters.org; Web 2 November 2010 Works Cited Chambers, Joan, Molly Hood, and Michael Peake. A Work of Art. Twickenham: Belair, 2005. Print. Chipp, Herschel B, Peter H. Selz, and Joshua C. Taylor. Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Print. Duchting, Hajo. Georges Seurat, 1859-1891: The Master of Pointillism. New York: Taschen. Mathews, Nancy M. Paul Gauguin: An Erotic Life. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2001. Print. Raczka, Bob. Name That Style: All About Isms in Art. Minneapolis [Minn.: Millbrook Press, 2009. Print. Silverman, Debora. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Print. Read More