Question: How long did it take Seurat to paint "A Sunday Afternoon"?
About the article "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", section "Overview".

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In the summer of 1884, Seurat began work on "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", which took him two years to complete.
The painting shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities.
The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the viewer's eye to blend colors optically, rather than having the colors physically blended on the canvas.
It took Seurat two years to complete this painting, much of which he spent in the park sketching in preparation for the work (there are about 60 studies).
It is now in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Seurat made several studies for the large painting including a smaller version, "Study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1884–1885), now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City.
The painting was the inspiration for Stephen Sondheim's musical, "Sunday in the Park with George". 
The Seine.
The Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte.
"The Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte" (F304) is a painting made by Van Gogh of a favored area on the Seine near Asnières.
It was made during a period where Van Gogh explored the use of "dots" of paint set alongside contrasting colors, influenced by Georges Seurat, who introduced Pointillism.
In 1885 Seurat made "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte" and used a technique of placing colored dots on a work which led a movement called "Neo-Impressionism", or "Divisionism" and "Pointillism".
Van Gogh was one of the artists later called "Post-Impressionists" who was influenced by Seurat's style that rejected realism and idealism to create a new genre based upon abstraction and simplicity.
Van Gogh learned from Seurat the beauty in simplicity and a means to convey messages in a more optimistic, light way than was his work in Holland.
While Van Gogh could not match Seurat's precision, aspects of Pointillism were integrated into Van Gogh's work. 
"The Seine with the Pont de la Grande Jatte" (F304) is a painting made by Van Gogh of a favored area on the Seine near Asnières.
It was made during a period where Van Gogh explored the use of "dots" of paint set alongside contrasting colors, influenced by Georges Seurat, who introduced Pointillism.
In 1885 Seurat made "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte" used a technique of placing colored dots on a work which led a movement called "Neo-Impressionism", "Divisionism" and "Pointillism".
Van Gogh was one of the artists later called "Post-Impressionists" who was influenced by Seurat's style that rejected realism and idealism to create a new genre based upon abstraction and simplicity.
Van Gogh learned from Seurat the beauty in simplicity and a means to convey messages in a more optimistic, light way than his work in Holland.
While Van Gogh could not match Seurat's precision, aspects of Pointillism were integrated into Van Gogh's work. 
Georges Seurat.
"Bathers at Asnières" by Georges-Pierre Seurat depicts a scene of 19th century leisure and developing industry in this suburb of Paris.
In 1885 Seurat made "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte" used a technique of placing colored dots on a work which led a movement called "Pointillism". 
Following the failure and scathing critical reception of "Merrily We Roll Along" in 1981 (the show closed after 16 performances), Sondheim announced his intention to leave the musical theatre to write mystery novels.
He was persuaded by Lapine to return to the theatrical world after the two were inspired by "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", the masterpiece of the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat.
Lapine noted that one major figure was missing from the canvas: the artist himself.
This observation provided the springboard for the creation of "Sunday" and the production evolved into a meditation on art, emotional connection and community.
The musical fictionalizes the life of Seurat.
In fact none of his children survived beyond infancy and he had no grandchildren.
Seurat's common-law wife was Madeleine Knobloch, who gave birth to his two sons, the second after his death.
Unlike Dot in the musical, Knobloch was living with Seurat when he died and she did not emigrate to America.
She died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 35.