MUSEE ORSAY, Seurat The Circus_Room 37

In order to fully appreciate this work called The Circus, you must first get to know its author.

You should know that Seurat brought a real revolution to the art world by giving birth to Neo-impressionism or Scientific Impressionism, which is based on studies such as those carried out by the chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul in the field of chromatics. Based on his discoveries, in fact, the artist created the painting technique known today as Pointillism or Divisionism, where pure colors are juxtaposed on the canvas, without mixing them, but applying them in the form of tiny dots or strokes that the observer's eye then recomposes and blends to create colors different from those actually applied. Another scholar who influenced Seurat's technique was Charles Henry, who argued that lines and colors were closely linked to the emotions aroused in observers: for example, ascending lines convey joy, descending ones sadness, warm colors dynamism, and cold ones inertia.

Now, looking at the painting, you can see the elements I mentioned, first of all pointillism. See, for example, how the contours of the figures are obtained by the thickening of the blue dots that outline everything and that have also been used to create the frame of the painting. This dark color, in sharp contrast to the more flamboyant colors of the canvas, emphasizes the warm tones, which convey a cheerful feeling....