Georges Seurat was born on December 2, 1859, in Paris, France. He loved to draw as a young child while his mother, Ernestine Faivre, raise him and his siblings. They lived in Paris and his father, Antoine-Chrisostome, spent most of his time in a cottage in Le Raincy. .

             In 1875, when Seurat was only sixteen he began taking a course with a sculptor, Justin Lequien. Several years later, Seurat studied with Henri Lehmann at the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts. During the next two years, he came upon a book entitled Essai sur les signes inconditionnels de l'art (Essay on the Unmistakable Signs of Art) by Humbert de Superville. He discovered his relationship between lines and images. These finding would become the inspiration for Seurat"s entire career.

             Two years later in 1879, he left the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to perform his military service in Brest. While there, he found his love of drawing the sea and beaches. The following year, he returned home to Paris to study again with Lehmann. Seurat"s style was unconventional and soon left the school to travel. In 1881, Seurat and Edmond-Francois Aman-Jean, a painter who shared Seurat"s studio, left for the island of La Grande Jatte. While there, Seurat received his inspiration for many of his future works.

             In 1883 at the Salon in Paris, Seurat displayed his first official exhibition. The following year he painted "Une Baignade, Asnieres" (Bathing at Asnieres). It too was also exhibited at the Salon des Independants in 1884. In 1886, the painting was one of the "Works in Oil and Pastel by the Impressionists of Paris" exhibited by Durand-Ruel at the National Academy of Design in New York." It was too original and received harsh criticism in Paris and New York. An American paper critic described Seurat"s painting as the product of "a vulgar, coarse and commonplace mind." His work shows factories and their smokestacks in the distance while bathers cool off from the summer heat.