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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

Oil on canvas (1884–1886) by Georges Seurat, depicting Parisians relaxing on the Seine island of La Grande Jatte using tiny dots of pure colour (Pointillism). The defining work of Post-Impressionism and the founding manifesto of Divisionism.

Scholarly Significance

Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is the founding manifesto of Pointillism/Divisionism. Anchors Post-Impressionism and the scientific application of colour theory to painting.

Notes

  • ·Seurat spent two years (1884–1886) on this monumental canvas; he made over 60 preparatory studies.
  • ·The painting depicts about 48 figures, animals, and objects on the island of La Grande Jatte in the Seine, a popular weekend destination for Parisians of various classes.
  • ·Seurat applied thousands of tiny dots of unmixed colour, relying on the viewer's eye to blend them optically — a technique he called Chromoluminarism or Divisionism.
  • ·Exhibited at the eighth (and final) Impressionist exhibition in 1886; the same year Seurat showed it at the first Salon des Indépendants.
  • ·Paul Signac, the critic Félix Fénéon, and the writer Joris-Karl Huysmans were among the first to champion the new technique.
  • ·Acquired by Frédéric Bartlett and donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1926.