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Seurat and van Gogh

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Seurat and van Gogh
Comparison and Contrast Essay: Seurat and van Gogh In the late 1800s, when Impressionist movement had lost most of its momentum, the Post-Impressionists appeared, started to seek for distinguishable styles, concentrate on themes and deeper meanings and express strong personalities and emotions rather than just focus on optical impressions. Among them were Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh, fathers of Pointillism and Expressionism respectively, two notable styles in the Post-Impressionism as well as modern art. Despite having many differences in techniques and styles as well as careers and personal lives, both Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh have proved their places in the Post-Impressionist movement, become brilliant inspirations for fellow artists and remained two of the most eminent artists of all time. There are numerous distinctions between Seurat and van Gogh, starting with their backgrounds and personal lives. Georges-Pierre Seurat was born in 1859 in Paris to a wealthy legal officer and a Paris woman. He started to show interest in drawing when he was just a kid, and had the chance to study art with two notable artists, Justin Lequien and Henri Lehmann, at his young ages. After spending a year in military service, Seurat, whose art view had diverged from his mentors then, decided to quit studying and move to the island of La Grande Jatte, which served as his biggest, defining movement in his career. Although his studies were not completed, Seurat was always considered an early bloomer, a bright and creative student who was expected to have a prominent art career in the future, in contrary to van Gogh who showed little potential in his early years and only pursued a career in art at the his late twenties. Not as fortunate as Seurat who was born and raised in Paris - the city of art, Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a small village in Netherlands, in a middle-class family. In his early years, van Gogh taught himself to


Cited: Brodskaia, Nathalia. “Preface.” Preface. Post-Impressionism. New York: Parkstone, 2010. 7. Print. Seurat, Georges. Letter to Maurice Beaubourg. 28 Aug. 1890. Art of the 20th Century. Ed. Ingo Walther. Los Angeles: Taschen, 2000. 13. Print. van Gogh, Vincent. Letter to Theo van Gogh. 9 Mar. 1883. Venturing upon Dizzy Heights. Ed. Bruce Ross. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. 56. Print.

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