Who was Georges Seurat? Google Doodle honours Frenchman’s birthday
Today (Thursday, 2 December 2021) Google Doodle is honouring renowned French artist Georges Seurat on the 162nd anniversary of his birth.
Google has honoured many distinguished people from various walks of life in its Doodle, including painter Claude Cahun, gay rights activist Frank Kameny, writer/journalist Hisaye Yamamoto, and scientist Anne McLaren.
Today it is the turn of French post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat. Let’s take a look at his remarkably short life…
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Georges Pierre Seurat is a world-renowned painter credited for inventing the painting techniques divisionism and pointillism.
Born on 2 December 1859 in Paris, his father, Antoine Chrysostome Seurat, was a former legal official. Georges had two older siblings – his brother Émile Augustin and sister Marie-Berthe.
The painter’s formal artistic training began as a teenager, while his education at the prestigious fine arts institution École des Beaux-Arts in Paris started in 1878.
Early on in his artistic journey, Georges developed a deep fascination with the scientific aspects of painting and art. His leaning towards science saw him become disenchanted with the confines of academic traditions in art.
Delving deeper into the scientific study of colour theory and optical physics, Georges developed his own styles of painting – divisionism, also known as chromoluminarism, and pointillism.
Georges was only 26 when he painted his most widely recognised work of art: A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte – 1884.
The painting is housed at the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection in The Art Institute of Chicago.
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The Doodle honouring Georges Seurat features the word ‘Google’ written using dots. As the GIF plays, many dots take over the letter and soon it’s converted into A Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte.
2 December 2021 marks the 162nd anniversary of the artist’s birth. Georges died in Paris in 1891, aged only 31. His cause of death is uncertain but his last ambitious work, The Circus, was unfinished when he died.
Twitter users remember the artistMany Twitter users have taken to the platform to remember the famous artist and his work: