Head of a Girl 1879

Georges Seurat made this oil on canvas head of a girl at an unknown date. But we can assume it was made during the 1880s in France. Seurat was part of the Post-Impressionist movement, a generation of artists reacting against the more subjective and intuitive style of Impressionism. Instead, artists like Seurat sought to bring a more scientific approach to their work. Pointillism, with its carefully placed dots of color, was a method for creating optical effects on the canvas, a means of bringing scientific method to bear on art. What is the public role of this kind of art? How can it be used to comment on social structures? Is it progressive? It is through the art historian’s careful consideration of historical documents, such as artists' letters, manifestos, contemporary reviews, and sales records, that we can interpret and understand its deeper meanings and contexts. We discover that, above all, the meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.