Resumen de Seurat and the 'cours de M.Yvon'
Evidence in the Archives nationales in Paris allows a more nuanced reading of Georges Seurat's early career and alters the account of his student years. While the fact that Seurat received an orthodox artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts is well known, it has not always received its due attention. In general, two factors lie beneath its presumed insignificance: the idea that Seurat's earliest “academic” efforts had little impact on his subsequent innovations and (perhaps more crucially) a belief that the episode was short-lived. The writer examines the evidence of inscription records from the class of Henri Lehmann, which shows, among other things, that Seurat spent at least three years at the Beaux-Arts; that he likely chose to leave because he failed to qualify for the first round of its most important annual contests, the Prix de Rome; and that he learnt from a teacher other than Lehmann, Adolphe Yvon. He goes on to discusses the possible influence of Yvon's classes on his work.
