Ville D' Avray, White Houses

This view of farmhouses in the countryside outside Paris, seen from across a sunlit cornfield, enabled Seurat to experiment with form and colour. The simplified shapes are contrasted with complex colours. The bush on the right is painted in varying tones of green with flecks of red blue and orange. These complementary colours, when put together, create a more vivid optical effect. Later Seurat developed this ‘Divisionist’ method more scientifically, applying it rigidly and on a larger scale. He used dots of pure colour and created the ‘pointilliste' style for which he became famous.