An important Post-Impressionist French painter, Georges Seurat moved away from the apparent spontaneity and rapidity of Impressionism and developed a structured, more monumental art to depict modern urban life. Seurat studied avant-garde painting techniques, especially Impressionism and the latest scientific theories pertaining to light and color. From 1885 to 1886 he developed the divisionist depicting. This new style, which consisted of systematically applied small touches of unmodulated color, was based on contemporary optical theories of color relationships. For several of his large compositions, Seurat painted many small studies. For his study drawings he used black Conté crayon to create gradations of tone on the textured paper, achieving effects akin to those in his pointillist paintings, in which he juxtaposed dots of pure colors that blended optically to produce another color.
