8542RB Reading for Me Level 5 Part A

Factual
An Art Review
Georges Seurat was a French painter who was born in Paris in 1859. He
died at the young age of thirty-one. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is one of
his famous paintings.
Looking at the scene, I get a real sense of the island. It is a busy and
lively setting with lots going on, there are people relaxing on the grass,
children playing, families and friends chatting and characters accompanied
by their dogs. On the water, a team of rowers can be seen amongst
other boats enjoying leisure activities. There is a feeling of happiness and
enjoyment.
The sunshine radiates from the picture, with the light captured in the
bright colours and use of shadows. In the painting, people are holding
parasols to shade themselves from the sun’s rays.
To me, it feels as if a moment in time has been captured by the artist.
There are little clues to the era of the painting, evident in the clothes
people are wearing. There are men in top hats and ladies in long, corseted
dresses. A pet monkey can also be seen in the foreground.
Georges Seurat used a clever technique called pointillism. His paintings
were created using tiny little dots or brush strokes of paint in vibrant
colours. Our eyes blend the colours together so blue and yellow dots
next to each other are seen as green. It can take an incredibly long
time to produce pieces of artwork in this way so he must have been very
persistent. But it can also be calming and relaxing to generate pictures
using minuscule flecks of colour. Why don't you try it? What images can
you make using dots?
102 Reading for Me Level 5 (Part A) 978-1-922843-64-7 R.I.C. Publications ® Prim-Ed Publishing