The French painter Georges Seurat (1859 Paris – 1891 Morlaix) died 130 years ago (29/3). Together with Paul Signac, he was one of the co-founders of Neo-Impressionism, a style that strove for a new pictorial synthesis based on the consistent adherence to optical laws of perception and colour theory. Seurat’s painting technique was characterized by the use of pure colour tones applied to the canvas in tiny dots. He also employed this pointillist method in his Port d’Honfleur of 1886, in the National Gallery Prague’s holdings. Thematically, his image of the steamboat Maria at anchor draws on the works of Impressionist painters, such as Armand Guillaumin and Alfred Sisley. However, in his balanced composition of colours and forms in space, Seurat surpassed the Impressionist capturing of a fleeting visual impression.
