French Pointillist Painter, 1859-1891 Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 ?C 29 March 1891) was a French painter and draftsman. His large work Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, his most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting Seurat took to heart the color theorists' notion of a scientific approach to painting. Seurat believed that a painter could use color to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses counterpoint and variation to create harmony in music. Seurat theorized that the scientific application of color was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He thought that the knowledge of perception and optical laws could be used to create a new language of art based on its own set of heuristics and he set out to show this language using lines, color intensity and color schema. Seurat called this language Chromoluminarism. His letter to Maurice Beaubourg in 1890 captures his feelings about the scientific approach to emotion and harmony. He says "Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations". Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colors, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colors, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colors and by lines pointing downwards.  Related Paintings of Georges Seurat :. | Port-en-Bessin,Les Grues et la Percee | The Little Peasant in Blue | a sunday on la grande jatte 1884 | circus | The Models, |
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Albert Chmielowski
(born Adam Hilary Bernard Chmielowski; 1845 - 1916) was a Polish religious brother and founder of the Albertines. He is a saint of the Catholic Church. Albert is also known as Brat Albert (Brother Albert); in recognition of his holiness, he has also been called the "Brother of Our Lord", "Brother of Our God", and "Our God's Brother". Adam Chmielowski was born to a wealthy aristocratic family, and initially studied agriculture with the intention of managing the family estate. Involved in politics since his youth, he lost a leg at the age of 17 while fighting in an insurrection. He became a well-known and well-liked artist in Krakew, his political convictions inspiring his interest in the human condition. A gentle and compassionate spirit, Chmielowski felt compelled to help those in need and after years of reflection, decided to follow his calling into the service of God. In 1880, Chmielowski joined the Jesuits, took up the name Albert and abandoned painting. He began a life of service to the poor. In 1887, he founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants of the Poor, known in honor of their founder as the Albertines or the Gray Brothers, after their rough gray habits. In 1891, he founded the women's congregation, the Gray Sisters. The Albertines organized food and shelter for the poor and homeless. Albert believed that the great calamity of our time is that so many refuse to see and relieve the suffering of others. The so-called "haves" live away from the "have-nots", ignoring them and leaving their care to society.
RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, 1577-1640
Arthur Quartley
(May 24, 1839 - May 19, 1886), was an American painter known for his marine seascapes. Quartley was born in Paris and lived there to the age of twelve, when his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. He studied drawing with his father C.G. Quartley, who was an English engraver. His father was reputed to have demanded two drawings per week from the young lad. At age 17, Arthur was apprenticed to a sign painter in Baltimore. In 1862 Quartley and his family founded a design firm in Baltimore. The firm Emmart & Quartley was regarded as the best decorating company in the city (Dictionary of American Biography); however, young Quartley began painting marine seascapes of Chesapeake Bay, and progressively spent more and more time in that pursuit. He held a successful show of marine paintings at the studio of Norval H. Busey in Baltimore. Scholar Elizabeth Johns remarked that Quartley's work reveals familiarity with the Dutch Masters marine tradition of composition in treatment of light and color. To pursue his painting more seriously, Quartley moved to New York City in 1875. New York at that time had become a premier center for notable painters. From there he painted seascapes of Long Island bays, New York Harbor, the New Hampshire Isle of Shoals, and Naragansett Bay in Rhode Island. The Hudson River School was waning at this point, so that other groups were forming, among them the Tilers, of whom Quartley was a founding member. The Tilers was a group of artists and writers, that included such luminaries as Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, and Augustus Saint Gaudens. They met frequently to exchange ideas and decorate ceramic tiles in promotion of their works. They also took excursions for painting, such as the 1878 pilgrimage to Eastern Long Island by Quartley and ten others. On that trip Quartley painted Seascape and also a blue painted tile of an introspective girl at the beach. The journalist and philanthropist John W. McCoy promoted the careers of Quartley and of his friend, the sculptor William H. Rinehart.