Lot Essay
Seurat painted the present work in the early 1880's, a time of crucial experimentation and change for the artist. During this period, he shifted from beaux-arts figure subjects to landscape and genre studies, and--under the influence of the color theories of Chevreul and Rood--made significant advances towards his pointillist palette.
Between 1882 and 1884, inspired in part by Millet, Seurat painted more than twenty studies of farmers or peasants working in the fields, either breaking stones or thrashing wheat. His main focus in these pictures was the development of a more scientific approach to the depiction of light and color. In the background of Le tas de pierres, the painter has carefully distinguished between three different effects of light on foliage. Reflected sunlight appears in a range of yellows and ochres; sunlight partially absorbed by the leaves is represented in yellow-greens and blue-greens; and the areas in shadow are bluish. Seurat also divided the foreground into strongly contrasted areas of light and shadow demarcated by complementary colors: the brightly illuminated grounds is a high-valued yellow, and the shadows are blue. The costume of the stonebreaker at the left was similarly conceived in terms of contrasts between light and dark, with his yellow hat posed against the green foliage and his brown pants against the bright yellow ground. The painter's exploration of light and color in this series was extremely important for his artistic development; and in its palette and chiaroscuro, Le tas de pierres strongly resembles the preparatory studies for La Grand Jatte, which he began working on in 1884. In contrast to his later works, however, the brushwork of the present painting is extremely free and loose, a style which Seurat called balayé (broom-swept).
In a letter in 1890, Seurat gave a highly elliptical and suggestive explanation of part of his artistic theory:
Taking as given, the phenomena of the duration of the impression of light on the retina--synthesis follows as a result. The means of expression is the optical mixture of tones, and of colors (local color and the illuminating color), that is to say, of light and their reactions (shadows) according to the laws of contrast, gradation of irradiation. (quoted in J. Rewald, Seurat, New York, 1990, p. 166)
The present painting illustrates these principles.
Between 1882 and 1884, inspired in part by Millet, Seurat painted more than twenty studies of farmers or peasants working in the fields, either breaking stones or thrashing wheat. His main focus in these pictures was the development of a more scientific approach to the depiction of light and color. In the background of Le tas de pierres, the painter has carefully distinguished between three different effects of light on foliage. Reflected sunlight appears in a range of yellows and ochres; sunlight partially absorbed by the leaves is represented in yellow-greens and blue-greens; and the areas in shadow are bluish. Seurat also divided the foreground into strongly contrasted areas of light and shadow demarcated by complementary colors: the brightly illuminated grounds is a high-valued yellow, and the shadows are blue. The costume of the stonebreaker at the left was similarly conceived in terms of contrasts between light and dark, with his yellow hat posed against the green foliage and his brown pants against the bright yellow ground. The painter's exploration of light and color in this series was extremely important for his artistic development; and in its palette and chiaroscuro, Le tas de pierres strongly resembles the preparatory studies for La Grand Jatte, which he began working on in 1884. In contrast to his later works, however, the brushwork of the present painting is extremely free and loose, a style which Seurat called balayé (broom-swept).
In a letter in 1890, Seurat gave a highly elliptical and suggestive explanation of part of his artistic theory:
Taking as given, the phenomena of the duration of the impression of light on the retina--synthesis follows as a result. The means of expression is the optical mixture of tones, and of colors (local color and the illuminating color), that is to say, of light and their reactions (shadows) according to the laws of contrast, gradation of irradiation. (quoted in J. Rewald, Seurat, New York, 1990, p. 166)
The present painting illustrates these principles.