The Eiffel Tower by Georges Seurat

According to Gustave Coquiot, this work was painted in 1890, the year after the tower was opened for the Paris World's Fair-at which it provided the main attraction. Completed on March 31, 1889, the tower is 984 feet tall and is composed of 12,000 metal parts held in place by 2,500,000 rivets.

Impressed by the intricate calculations involved in this piece of architectural engineering, no doubt also indulging his fondness for the vertical, Seurat shows us the tower from across the Pont d'Iena, soaring into a sky spangled with vibrant dots. This is a tribute to "the great lady" who, at the time, made the public uneasy. Two years before its completion a number of writers protested, among them J.-K. Huysmans, who called it "the spire of a junkyard Notre Dame."

Here Seurat's dots are rounded, like so much blue and orange confetti. They are running in every direction, up, and down, making circular swirls and contrapuntal contrasts. The work is fresh, highly colorful, and firmly set against the Paris sky-Seurat's sky.