Post-Impressionism · 1891
The Circus
The Circus (1891) by Georges Seurat. Its palette is led by light sand (#b79e71, 21%) and oatmeal (#a69f96, 18%), with accents of pale muted golden cream, scarlet, very dark muted blue and dark muted azure blue. Overall the canvas is light, moderately saturated and warm.
Color note
Seurat set small dots of unmixed color side by side so they blend in the eye, a method drawn from the color science of Chevreul and Rood. Some of his yellows were zinc yellow, which has since darkened.
Palette
- #b79e71 MG 181 light sand 21.4% of canvas
- #a69f96 MG 172 oatmeal 18.3% of canvas
- #98886f MG 182 golden umber 17.5% of canvas
- #e8e6df MG 206 silver 14.5% of canvas
- #e6d59d MG 203 pale muted golden cream 11.8% of canvas
- #a4653a MG 024 scarlet 7.3% of canvas
- #1e253b MG 100 very dark muted blue 5.8% of canvas
- #3d4363 MG 098 dark muted azure blue 3.3% of canvas
Color families
Brown 44%, Gray 18%, White 15%, Yellow 12%, Blue 6%
Measurements
Composition
51% of the visual weight is in the left half, 55% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.76 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 13% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 36% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.
Details
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