Once described as  the most beautiful painter s drawings in existence , Georges Seurat s mysterious and luminous works on paper played a crucial role in his short, vibrant career. This comprehensive publication surveys the artist s entire oeuvre, from his academic training and the emergence of his unique methods to the studies made for his monumental canvases, presenting some 130 works, primarily the artist s incomparable conté drawings along with a small selection of oil sketches and paintings. Essays by a range of distinguished art historians address specific aspects of Seurat s techniques, materials and subject matter. In an effort to bridge the seemingly opposite goals of description and evocation, Seurat masses dark and light tones to abstract figures, exploits medium and paper to amplify radiating light, and engages with the Parisian metropolis, revealing urban types. Seurat is perhaps best known as the inventor of pointillism, but this volume underscores his tremendous achievement as a draughtsman and his fundamental importance to the art of the 20th century.