The painter most like you

You are most like Seurat

You trust preparation over luck, and principles over impulse

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884 · 1884–86, border added 1888–89

Your nature

You are a patient builder

This is a playful reading of your nature, not a scientific personality test.
The grey lines below come from Seurat's real life and work.

Your strength
You break big tasks into small ones and finish them one by one. You trust the basics.
Seurat left many drawings in black conté crayon, made of nothing but light and dark.
When you shine
You are happiest when you figure out a principle and test it with your own hands.
He read the colour theories of scientists such as Chevreul and carried them into his painting.
What wears you out
Being told to just wing it, or go by feel, frustrates you.
In 1884 his large painting Bathers at Asnières was not accepted by the official Salon.
How you work
You feel at ease with a plan and practice behind you. You keep to the method you chose.
He went out to La Grande Jatte many times to paint small oil studies on wooden panels.
With other people
You don't push to the front, but you work deeply with people who share your aims.
Seurat founded the Society of Independent Artists together with painters such as Signac.
How you rest
You rest in a tidy space, or on a walk watching people from a little distance.
The people in A Sunday on La Grande Jatte stroll, sit and rest, and gaze at the water in a riverside park.

Why Seurat?

You make a plan and build things step by step. For one painting, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Seurat made dozens of studies over nearly two years.

He did not mix his colours on the palette. He set them side by side in small dots, putting into practice colour theories he had studied: seen from a distance, the colours mix in the eye. The method is called pointillism.

Seurat died at thirty-one. His life was short, but the few large paintings he left had a long influence on the painters who came after him.

If you build something big by laying each step down precisely, there is a Seurat in you.

Kindred painter · Opposite painter

Among the eight painters,
who is near and who is far

Kindred painter
Degas
When others watch the stage, you watch what happens behind it
You share the habit of planning and building up studies toward a big picture. Working together, you would likely fall into step easily.
See the Degas result →
Opposite painter
Van Gogh
You can't hide how you feel about the things you love
The Van Gogh type acts the moment an idea strikes, the opposite of you. That fire could light up your plans.
See the Van Gogh result →

Spend a day like this painter

Today, like Seurat

Three small ideas. Trying just one is enough.

Write today's tasks in five boxes and cross them off one at a time.
Sit on a park bench for ten minutes and notice where people stand and which way they face.
Make a small picture from dots of only three colours, then step back and look again.

Georges Seurat

Step into Seurat's paintings

While you are here, stand in front of a painting for three minutes.
For each one, here is where to look first.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 18841884–86, border added 1888–89
How to lookFind the monkey at the feet of the woman on the right and the black dog in front. Up close, the grass is made of small dots.
Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque)1887–88
How to lookLook at the row of lights across the top and the figure in the centre holding a trombone.