Describe the characteristics of the Beginnings with Georges Seurat in this artwork's Theoretical foundations and development.
Divisionism, along with the Neo-Impressionism movement as a whole, found its beginnings in Georges Seurat's masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Seurat had received classical training at the École des Beaux-Arts, and, as such, his initial works reflected the Barbizon style. In 1883, Seurat and some of his colleagues began exploring ways to express as much light as possible on the canvas. By 1884, with the exhibition of his first major work, Bathers at Asnières, as well as croquetons of the island of Île de la Jatte, his style began taking form with an awareness of Impressionism, but it was not until he finished La Grande Jatte in 1886 that he established his theory of chromoluminarism. In fact, La Grande Jatte was not initially painted in the Divisionist style, but he reworked the painting in the winter of 1885–86, enhancing its optical properties in accordance with his interpretation of scientific theories of color and light.
Georges Seurat Bathers at Asnières Île de la Jatte Impressionism Neo-Impressionism A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Barbizon École des Beaux-Arts