The Bridge at Bineau 

Georges Seurat made this oil on canvas artwork, named "The Bridge at Bineau", in France. The image is a landscape with trees in the middle ground and a bridge in the background. Seurat was a Post-Impressionist painter, who would have been affected by the social changes happening in France at this time, as Haussmann's renovation of Paris was in full swing. The image is a snapshot of the French countryside, and it creates meaning through its visual codes. The painting speaks to the history of art institutions, and the impressionists breaking from the Royal Academy to paint 'en plein air'. Seurat takes this further by using Pointillism. By studying these paintings, we can gain a better understanding of both the artist and the world in which they lived, and how these social structures may have influenced them.