Seurat & Industry

Industry Engulfs the Worker: Seurat’s Social Commentary Regarding the Industrialization of France In His Early Career

Stephen Tavares, Princeton Class of 2008

In Seurat, Richard Thomson states that while Georges Seurat paid particular attention to the life of the worker, these sketches were merely snapshots of the worker in late nineteenth-century France. For Thomson, these works do not comment on the social problems that plagued France, especially Paris, because of the introduction of industry and factories. Instead, Thomson, among other critics, views these early works of Georges Seurat as merely developmental pieces with no social commentary on problems plaguing France at the time. But is this true? While Georges Seurat never stated that his drawings and early paintings were intended as social commentary on the changes affecting France, a common theme runs throughout each of his paintings, industry, more specifically the worker. Throughout the course of these drawings and paintings in the early part of his career from 1880 to 1884, Seurat’s depiction of the worker evolved as industry changed both the way and the environment in which work was done, beginning with agricultural workers, to road makers, and finally to factory workers. Thus, as industrialization changed the worker, so Seurat changed his depiction of the average working man. By focusing upon these changing workers within each of Seurat’s paintings, the viewer is able to understand the change of the life of the worker during the industrialization of France. Since the average peasant’s role in the work-place diminished as a result of industry, Seurat saw industry as having negative implications on the worker. With the changes of the worker in the workplace, Seurat commented on the problem inherent with industrialization, the loss of man’s individuality and, as a result, the transformation of man into a machine. Because Seurat is negatively commenting on the problems of industrialization through his early sketches and paintings, his works become more than just snapshots of life as Thomson states.

Industrialization In and Around France
The Agricultural Worker by Seurat
De-Individualization Begins
Industrialization Becomes Apparent in Seurat's Works
Fctories Invade Seurat's World
The Machine of Industry in Seurat's Works
Conclusion
Works Cited
About the Author