15 Things You Might Not Know About 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884' | Mental Floss 15 Things You Might Not Know About 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884' filed under: art Image credit: Georges Seurat. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, 1884/86. The Art Institute of Chicago. Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection. Like us on Facebook At first glance, Georges-Pierre Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 seems a warm portrait of a sunny day in a lovely park. But a closer look at the Neo-Impressionist's most famous work reveals much more. 1. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 is made up of millions of dots. Forging the new style with this first-of-its-kind painting , Seurat became the father of Pointillism and of Neo-Impressionism. However, he preferred to call his technique " chromo-luminarism ," a term he felt better stressed its focus on color and light. 2. It took Seurat more than two years to complete.

This complicated masterpiece of Pointillism began in 1884 with a series of almost 60 sketches Seurat made while people watching at the Paris park. Next he started painting, using small horizontal brush strokes. After this initial work, he began the labor-intensive realization of his vision with tiny dots of paint—a process that would not be completed until the spring of 1886. 3. Science was Seurat’s major muse for color choices. "Some say they see poetry in my paintings," Seurat said . "I see only science." The artist was fascinated by the color theories of scientists Michel Eugène Chevreul and Ogden Rood, and he explored Divisionism in A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884. This painting method utilizes colors in patches that essentially trick the human eye into blending them, creating luminance and shape. 4. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Phoenician art inspired the Parisian scene. Seurat sought to capture the people of his Paris just as these eras immortalized their citizens. Or as he once put it to French poet Gustave Kahn, "The Panathenaeans of Phidias formed a procession.

I want to make modern people, in their essential traits, move about as they do on those friezes, and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color." 5. Critics initially hated it. Seurat's groundbreaking techniques were a major turnoff for some critics at the Impressionist exhibit where A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 debuted in 1886. Other observers sneered at the rigid profiles of Seurat’s subjects. Meant to recall Egyptian hieroglyphics, these poses were negatively compared to tin soldiers. 6. Sunday was revised in 1889. Seurat re-stretched its canvas to allow for room to paint a border made up of red, orange and blue dots. 7. Seurat was just 26 when he completed his best-known work. Thanks to his involvement in the artist collective the Société des Artistes Indépendants, the daring young painter's reputation was growing before A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 debuted. But while his output was seminal, it was also cut short in 1891 when Seurat died of an undetermined disease at age 31. 8.

Sunday was largely unseen for 30 years following Seurat's death. The opportunity to view the historic painting returned in 1924 when art lover Frederic Clay Bartlett purchased A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 and loaned it indefinitely to the Art Institute of Chicago. 9. An American philosopher helped reshape public opinion on the painting. In the 1950s, Ernest Bloch's three-volume The Principle of Hope explored the socio-political interpretations of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, spurring a renewed interest and appreciation for the piece. "This picture is one single mosaic of boredom, a masterful rendering of the disappointed longing and the incongruities of a dolce far niente [idleness]," Bloch wrote . "The painting depicts a middle-class Sunday morning on an island in the Seine near Paris…despite the recreation going on there, seems to belong more to Hades than to a Sunday…The result is endless boredom, the little man's hellish utopia of skirting the Sabbath and holding onto it too; his Sunday succeeds only as a bothersome must, not as a brief taste of the Promised Land." 10.

The painting is now displayed as Seurat intended. Once he'd added his painted border, Seurat reframed A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 in a specially-made wooden frame painted a crisp white. This display choice is still in effect at the Art Institute of Chicago. 11. But its colors have changed. Seurat employed a then-new pigment in his painting, a zinc chromate yellow that he hoped would properly capture the highlights of the park's green grasses. But for years this pigment has been undergoing a chemical reaction that began turning it brown even in Seurat's lifetime. 12. It's bigger than you'd think. Not just Seurat's most popular piece, but also his biggest, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 measures in at 81 3/4 inches by 121 1/4 inches, or about 7 feet by 10 feet. Its large size makes its every inch flush with tiny dots of color all the more remarkable. 13. This park scene may hold hidden sex workers.

The titular locale was a favorite of prostitutes on the prowl, so some historians suspect that fish are not what the fishing-pole-toting woman on the left was hoping to hook. The same speculation has arisen around the lady on the right, with a monkey on a leash and a man on her arm. 14. The painting was nearly incinerated while visiting New York. On April 15, 1958, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 was on loan at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City when a fire broke out in the adjoining Whitney Museum. The fire damaged six canvases, injured 31 people, and killed one workman, but Seurat's beloved work was whisked away to safety through an elevator evacuation plan. 15. It's one of the most reproduced and parodied paintings in the world. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte —1884 earns screen time in the Chicago-set comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off , the science fiction cult classic Barbarella , and on the crude cartoon series Family Guy . It's been parodied by Sesame Street , The Simpsons , the American version of The Office , and even the cover of Playboy.

In Looney Tunes: Back in Action , Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd invade the painting. And celebrated Broadway icons Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine made a musical about its creation called, Sunday in the Park With George . More from mental_floss... A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884 | The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition History Paris, Maison Dorée, 1, rue Laffitte, VIIIème Exposition de peinture, May 15–June 15, 1886, cat. 175. Paris, Rue des Tuileries, IIème Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, August 21–September 21, 1886, cat. 353. Brussels, Musée de l’Art Modern, IVe exposition annuelle de XX, February, 1887, cat. 1. Paris, Pavillon de la Ville de Paris, VIIIème Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, March 19–April 27, 1892, cat. 1082.

Paris, 23 Boulevard des Italiens, Exposition de La Revue Blanche, Georges Seurat: Oeuvres peintes et dessinées, March 19–April 5, 1900, cat. 17. Paris, Grandes Serres de la Ville de Paris (serre “B” de la Champs de la Reine, Aval-Alma), 21me Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants. Éxposition Rétrospective Georges Seurat (1859-1891), 1905, cat. 18. Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Georges Seurat (1859-1891), December 14, 1908–January 9, 1909, cat. 58. Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Georges Seurat, January 15–31, 1920, cat. 23.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Exhibition of Modern French Paintings from the Birch-Bartlett Collection, April–September, 1925, checklist no. 9. Boston Art Club, Birch-Bartlett Collection of Modern French Paintings, December 9-16, 1925, checklist no. 26. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 370. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 324. The Art Institute of Chicago, Art of the United Nations, November 16, 1944–January 1, 1945, no cat. no. The Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat: Paintings and Drawings, January 16–March 7, 1958, cat. 101, traveled to New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Seurat: Paintings and Drawings, March 24–May 11, 1958.

The Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300-1900, October 17–December 14, 1986, not included in the catalogue. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, A World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago 1893-1993, November 1–January 9, 1994, no cat. no, pl. 21. The Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte, June 16–September 19, 2004, cat. 80. Publication History Jules Christophe, Georges Seurat (Paris, 1890). Gustave Kahn, “Seurat,” L’Art Moderne 11 (April 5, 1891), pp. 107-10. Henry van de Velde, “Georges Seurat,” La Wallonie 6 (March/April 1891), pp. 167-71.

Emile Verhaeren, “Mort de Georges Seurat,” La Nation (April 1, 1891). Emile Verhaeren, “Georges Seurat,” La Société nouvelle (April 30, 1891), pp. 430-38. Téodor de Wyzewa, “Georges Seurat,” L’Art dans les Deux Mondes 22 (April 18, 1891), pp. 263-64. Jules Christophe, “Seurat,” La Plume (September 1, 1891). Paul Signac, D’Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionnisme (Paris, 1899). Emile Verhaeren, “Georges Seurat,” L’Art Moderne 15, 13 (April 1, 1900), p. 104. Thadée Natanson, “Un Primitif d’aujourd’hui: Georges Seurat,” La Revue Blanche 21 (April 1900), pp. 610-14.

Emile Verhaeren, “Notes: Georges Seurat,” La Nouvelle Revue Française 1 (February 1, 1909), p. 92. Roger Fry, “The Post-Impressionsists,” in Manet and the Post-Impressionists, exh. cat. (Grafton Galleries, London, 1910-11), pp. 8-9. Lucie Cousturier, “Georges Seurat,” L’Art Décoratif 27 (20 June 1912), pp. 357-72. Elie Faure, Les Constructeurs (Paris, 1914). Félix Féneon, “Georges Seurat,” Bulletin de la Vie Artistique 7 (14 May 1914); reprinted in Félix Fénéon, Oeuvres plus que complètes, ed. Joan Halperin (Geneva, 1970), pp. 293-94. Roger Bissière, “Notes sur l’art de Seurat,” L’Esprit Nouveau 1 (Oct. 1920), pp.

13-28. André Salmon, “Georges Seurat,” The Burlington Magazine 37 (September 1920), pp. 115-22. Roger Fry, “Retrospect” in Vision and Design (London, 1920), pp. 188-199. Lucie Cousturier, Seurat (Paris, 1921), p. 17, pl. 11. J. Carré. “Le Grand Art. Georges Seurat,” La Vie (September 1, 1922). André Salmon, Propos d’atelier (Paris, 1922). André Lhote, Georges Seurat (Rome, 1922), pl. 4. André Lhote, “Seurat” in Parlons peinture, 1922; reprinted in Ecrits sur la peinture (Brussels, 1946). Walter Pach, “Georges Seurat (1853-1891),” The Arts 3 (March 1923), pp. 160-74.

Walter Pach, Georges Seurat (New York, 1923), pl. 6. Gustave Coquiot, Seurat (Paris, 1924), pp. 214-19, ill. opp. p. 216, 247. Félix Fénéon, “Précisions concernant Seurat,” Bulletin de la Vie Artistique (15 August 1924); reprinted in Félix Fénéon, Oeuvres plus que complètes, ed. Joan Halperin (Geneva, 1970), pp. 467-68. Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Georges Seurat, foreward by Walter Pach (New York, Brummer Galleries, 1924). Guy Eglinton, “The Theory of Seurat,” International Studio 81 (May 1925), pp. 113-17. Félix Fénéon, “Georges Seurat und die oeffentliche Meinung,” Der Querschnitt 6 (October 1926), pp. 767-70.

Roger Fry, “Georges Seurat,” The Dial 1926, reprinted in R. Fry, Transformations, Critical and Speculative Essays on Art, 1926, pp. 188-96 and Sir Anthony Blunt, Seurat (1965), pp. 9-22. Amédée Ozenfant, “Seurat,” Cahiers d’Art 7 (September 1926), p. 172. Florent Fels, “La Peinture française aux XIXe et Xxe siècles, Seurat,” A.B.C. Magazine d’Art (1927), pp. 282-87. André Lhote, “Expositions Seurat et Roger de la Fresnaye,” (1927); reprinted in La Peinture, Le Coeur et l’Esprit (Paris, 1933). Claude Roger-Marx, “Georges Seurat,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (December 1927), pp. 311-18.

Christian Zervos, “Un Dimanche à la Grande Jatte et la technique de Seurat,” Cahiers d’Art 9 (1928), pp. 361-75. Alfred Barr, The Museum of Modern Art First Loan Exhibition New York November 1929; Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh, exh. cat. (Museum of Modern Art, New York 1929), pp. 23-27. Robert Rey, “Seurat,” in La Peinture française à la fin du XIXe siècle, La Renaissance du Sentiment Classique, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Cézanne, Seurat (Paris, 1931), pp. 95-134. B.E. Werner, “Georges Seurat,” Die Kunst 65 (February 1932), pp. 147-52. F. Walter, “Du Paysage Classique au surréalisme: Seurat,” Revue de l’Art Ancien et Moderne 63 (April 1933), pp. 165-76.

P. Signac, “Les étapes de la peinture contemporaine: Georges Seurat,” Beaux-Arts (December 15, 1933), p. 1. Lévy-Gutmann, “Seurat et ses amis,” Art et Décoration 63 (Jan. 1934), pp. 36-37. Paul Signac, “Le néo-impressionisme,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 11 (January 1934), pp. 49-59. Daniel Catton Rich, Seurat and the Evolution of “La Grande Jatte” (Chicago, 1935). Meyer Schapiro, “Seurat and “La Grande Jatte”," The Columbia Review 17 (November 1935), pp. 9-16. A. Watt, “Art of Georges Seurat,” Apollo 23 (March 1936), pp. 168-69. J. Hélion, “Seurat as a predecessor,” The Burlington Magazine 69 (July 1936), pp. 4-14.

Paul Signac, “The Neo-Impressionist Movement,” in Seurat and his Contemporaries, exh. cat. (London, Wildenstein, 1937). Georges Duthuit, “Seurat’s System,” The Listener 17, 421 (February 3, 1937), pp. 210-11. D. Goldring, “London Art News: Seurat and His Contemporaries,” London Studio 13 (April 1937), p. 219. “Seurat,” Apollo 32 (July 1940), pp. 11-12. R. J. Goldwater, “Some Aspects of the Development of Seurat’s Style,” Art Bulletin 23 (June 1941), pp. 117-30. Lionello Venturi, “The Art of Seurat,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (July-Dec. 1944), pp. 421-30. John Rewald, Georges Seurat (New York, 1946).

Georges Duthuit, “Georges Seurat, Voyant et physicien,” Labyrinthe [Geneva] (December 1946). Germain Seligman, The Drawings of Georges Seurat (New York, 1947). André Lhote, Seurat (Paris, 1948). André Lhote, “Le classicisme de Seurat; excerpts,” Arts (June 18, 1948), p. 2. Thadée Natanson, “L’Ecole de Seurat,” in Peints à leur tour (Paris, 1948), pp. 121-29. John Rewald, “Seurat: the meaning of the dots,” Art News 48 (April 1949), pp. 24-27, 61-63. Umbro Apollonio, “Disegni di Georges Seurat,” in XXV Biennale di Venezia, Catalogo (Venice, 1950), pp. 175-79.

“Sunday at the Grande Jatte,” Life 31 (July 23, 1951), pp. 60-64. “Pointillism with Paint and Camera,” Design 53 (March 1952), p. 141. John Rewald, “Seurat and His Friends,” in Seurat and His Friends, exh. cat. (New York, Wildenstein, 1953). Terence Mullaly, “Pointillists,” Apollo 63 (June 1956), pp. 185-89. D.C. Rich, ed., Seurat Paintings and Drawings, exh. cat. (Chicago, 1958). D. C. Rich, “Place of Seurat,” Art Institute Quarterly 52 (February 1958), pp. 1-5. L. Katz, “Seurat: Allegory and Image,” Arts 32 (April 1958), pp. 40-47. Meyer Schapiro, “New Light on Seurat,” Art News 57 (April 1958), pp.

22-24, 44-45, 52. J. O. Kerr, “Seurat: the Silent Post-Impressionist,” Studio 155 (May 1958), pp. 129-33. Robert L. Herbert, “Seurat in Chicago and New York,” The Burlington Magazine 100 (May 1958), pp. 146-155. Robert L. Herbert, “Seurat and Jules Chéret,” Art Bulletin 40 (June 1958), pp. 156-58. William I. Homer, “Seurat’s formative period: 1880-1884,” Connoisseur 142 (September 1958), pp. 58-62. Henri Dorra and John Rewald, Seurat (Paris, 1959), no. 139 (ill.). Robert L. Herbert, “Seurat and Puvis de Chavannes,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 25 (October 1959), pp. 22-29. Robert L.

Herbert, “Seurat and Emile Verhaeren: Unpublished Letters,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 54 (December 1959), pp. 315-28. César M. De Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre 2 vol. (Paris, 1961), no. 162. John Russell, Seurat (London, 1965). John House, "Meaning in Seurat's Figure Painting,"Art History 3, 3 (September 1980), pp. 345-56. Richard Thomson, “ ‘Les Quat’ Pattes’: The Image of the Dog in Late Nineteenth-Century French Art,” Art History 5 (September 1982), pp. 331-37. Jeroen Stumpel, "The Grande Jatte, that patient tapestry," Simiolus 14 (1984), pp. 209-24. Richard Thomson, Seurat (Oxford, 1985), pp. 97-126. Richard R.

Brettell, “The Bartletts and the ‘Grande Jatte:’ Collecting Modern Painting in the 1920s,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 12, 2 (1986), pp. 103-113 (ill.). Alan Lee, “Seurat and Science,” Art History 10 (June 1987), pp. 203-26. S. Hollis Clayson, “The Family and the Father: The Grande Jatte and its Absences,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 155-72. Stephen F. Eisenman, “Seeing Seurat Politically,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 211-21. Mary Mathews Gedo, “The Grande Jatte as the Icon of a New Religion: A Psycho-Iconographic Interpretation,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 223-37.

John House, “Reading the Grande Jatte, ” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 115-31. Linda Nochlin, “Seurat’s Grande Jatte: An Anti-Utopian Allegory,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 133-53. Richard Thomson, “The Grande Jatte: Notes on Drawing and Meaning,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 181-97. Michael Zimmerman, “Seurat, Charles Blanc, and Naturalist Art Criticism,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 14, 2 (1989), pp. 199-209. Jean Claude Lebensztejn, Chahut (Paris, 1989). Natasha Staller, “Babel: Hermetic Languages, Universal Languages, and Anti-Languages in fin de siècle Parisian Culture,” Art Bulletin 76 (June 1994), pp. 331-54.

Fritz Novotny, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780-1880 (New Haven, 1995), p. 370. Paul Smith, Seurat and the Avant-Garde (New Haven, 1997). Suzanne Folds McCullagh, “‘A Lasting Monument’: The Regenstein Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26, 1 (2000), p. 13. Jane Block, Le Néo-Imoressionnisme de Seurat á Paul Klee, Exh. cat. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2005), ill.14-15, p. 16-21, p. 27-29, p. 32, p. 64, p. 74, p. 76, p. 85, p. 97, p. 108, p. 112, p. 122.

Martha Tedeschi, “Study of Trees, 1884,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 26, 1 (2000), pp. 82-83, cat. 36, fig. 29. Richard Shiff, Jodi Hauptman, Hubert Damisch, and Richard Thomson, “Seurat Distracted,” “Medium and Miasma: Seurat’s Drawings on the Margins of Paris,” “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” and “The Imperatives of Style: Seurat’s Drawings,” George Seurat: The Drawings, Exh. cat. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007), p.18, p. 110, ill. 111, p. 122, p. 123, p. 171. Basel, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum Basel, Vincent van Gogh- Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes, 2009, Fig. 45, p. 82, p. 86.

Mary Mathews Gedo, Monet and His Muse: Camille Monet in the Artists Life, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010. p. 39, p. 58, p. 164. Richard R. Brettell, Pissarro’s People. New York: Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 2011. p. 202, p. 208, p. 217, fig. 154. Homburg, Cornelia. 2010. “Imagining City and Country.” In Vincent Van Gogh: Timeless Country – Modern City. Exh. cat., pp. 29-30. Skira. Jean-Michel Nectoux, “Je veux Écrire mon Songe Musical…,” Debussy: La Musique et les Arts. Exh. cat. (Musée d’Orsay, 2012), p. 26. Jennifer A. Thompson, “Van Gogh and Close-up Techniques in 19th-century French Painting,” Van Gogh: Up Close. Exh. cat. (Yale UP, 2012), p. 69.

Joseph J. Rishel, “Arcadia 1900,” Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia Exh. cat (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2012), p. 7, p. 48, p. 50, fig. 49. Ownership History By descent to Mme. Seurat, the artist’s mother (died 1899), Paris, 1891; by descent to Emile Seurat, the artist’s brother; sold for 800 francs to Casimir Brû, Paris, 1900; given by him to his daughter, Lucie, Paris, 1900; Lucie Brû Cousturier and Edmond Cousturier, Paris; sold for $20,000 possibly through Charles Vildrac, Paris to Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett, Chicago, 1924; given to the Art Institute, 1926.

Add this item to: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - George Seurat Paintings A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte We offer original aspect ratio sizes Price 48 X 72 in $1,405.95 If listed sizes are not in proportion to the original, don't worry, just choose which size is similar to what you want, we can offer oil paintings in a suitable size, painted in proportion to the original. If you would like the standard size, please let us know. Need a Custom Size? 1884-86 The Art Institute of Chicago , United States. Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was painted between 1884 and 1886. The depiction of a leisurely summer afternoon in a public park frequented by the Parisian bourgeois populace employed a theory based on current optical research. This research proposed dabs of color placed in close proximity on the canvas would resonate in a luminous blend on the viewer's retina.

Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, shown at the final Impressionist exhibition, pioneered a more structured formal approach to art that came to be called Neo-Impressionism. "Seurat's Grande Jatte is one of those rare works of art that stand alone; its transcendence is instinctively recognized by everyone. What makes this transcendence so mysterious is that the theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes: Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. Yet we never seem to fathom its elusive power. Stranger still, when he painted it, Seurat was a mere 25 (with only seven more years to live), a young man with a scientific theory to prove; this is hardly the recipe for success. His theory was optical: the conviction that painting in dots, known as pointillism or divisionism, would produce a brighter color than painting in strokes. "Seurat spent two years painting this picture, concentrating painstakingly on the landscape of the park before focusing on the people; always their shapes, never their personalities. Individuals did not interest him, only their formal elegance.

There is no untidiness in Seurat; all is beautifully balanced. The park was quite a noisy place: a man blows his bugle, children run around, there are dogs. Yet the impression we receive is of silence, of control, of nothing disordered. I think it is this that makes La Grande Jatte so moving to us who live in such a disordered world: Seurat's control. There is an intellectual clarity here that sets him free to paint this small park with an astonishing poetry. Even if the people in the park are pairs or groups, they still seem alone in their concision of form - alone but not lonely. No figure encroaches on another's space: all coexist in peace. "This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off!

In this painting, Seurat has "stopped the world," and it reveals itself as beautiful, sunlit, and silent - it is Seurat's world, from which we would never want to get off." Text from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces" Why settle for a paper print when you can add sophistication to your rooms with a high quality 100% hand-painted oil painting on canvas at wholesale price? Order this beautiful oil painting today! that's a great way to impress friends, neighbors and clients alike. 100% hand-painted oil painting on artist grade canvas. No printing or digital imaging techniques are used. In stock items ship immediately, usually ships in 3 to 10 days. $12.95 shipping charge for small size (e.g., size <= 20 x 24 in). The cheapest shipping rate from DHL, UPS, USPS, etc. Canvas stretched on wood bars for free. - Need special frame for oil painting? Please contact us. Send you a digital copy via email for your approval before shipping. 45-day Satisfaction Guaranteed and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Add A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte to Your Privete Lists You are not signed in. Select here to add this item to your default List. To create a new List, use the "new Wish List" option below. Default List Data successfully added to your Wish List ! Write a critique Kim from United States. Dear Kaizhou - we received the painting today and absolutely love it!!! Thank you for being with me every step of the way. Now we will have it professionally framed and then on the wall it goes. It will be the only picture on the walls in the living room! I guess that concludes our business with you and again, you have been truly great to work with!! Thank you Kaizhou! Kim C.M.S. from United States. I bought the 36x48 version of this piece which now hangs in my living room. The piece captures the composition and color of the original; it's like having a piece of the Chicago Museum in my living room. I wished I'd gotten the 48x72, which is closer in scale to the original, but there would have been no place for it in my home.

But the just smaller piece fits the rooms scale and adds a great deal of character. Critique this Painting Your critique is viewable immediately by the public. Your Nickname: PaintingMania.com reserves the right to edit or remove inappropriate critiques. Other paintings by George Seurat: Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Outer Harbor The Channel at Gravelines, Petit-Fort-Philippe On a Meadow Sitting Boy Alfalfa Fields, Saint-Denis more... Seurat was born in Paris, 1859, died at the young age of thirty-one(1891), cutting his career as an artist (1882-1891) to under a decade. In his artwork, Seurat sought to return to the permanence and reflective nature of classical art that had been abandoned for the spontaneity of Impressionism. This goal was reflected in his painting methodology: Seurat would spend months planning a single canvas, drawing and redrawing studies and sketches. Due to his slow, meticulous method of painting, Seurat painted less than ten major works in his career. Nevertheless, his work and his divergence from the Impressionist view of art were influential in the development of Neo-Impressionism and subsequent art movements.

In 1878, Seurat enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he studied classical art under Henri Lehmann, a pupil of Ingres. However, after only a year and a half of formal training, Seurat left to pursue his own independent study to systematize the use of color. He took notes on works by Puvis de Chavannes and Delacroix and he read the aesthetic treatises of Michel Chevreul, Charles Blanc, O. N. Rood, and others. He systematize the methods used empirically by Corot and the Impressionists. His first major painting, Bathers at Asnières (1883 - 4), was rejected by the Paris Salon in 1884 but exhibited by the newly formed Groupe des Artistes Indépendants. At the 1884 exhibition, Seurat met Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross, who collaborated with him in developing the method of Pointillism, the use of tiny dots of complimentary colors to create vibrant colors.

The pointillist method was employed in his second major painting, Sunday on the Island of Grande Jatte (1884-6) which was exhibited at the eight and last Impressionist exhibition in 1886. Only a few months afterwards, Seurat began work on Models, which he exhibited in 1888 at the fourth exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independants. Seurat's changing social circle may have been influential in causing Seurat to gain an interest in politicizing the message of his works while losing interest in the innovation of color. Before the exhibition of Bathers in 1884, Seurat was good friends with Edmond Aman-Jean, a friend that Seurat knew from the classical art school the Ecole de Beaux Arts. (Leighton 14) However, from the exhibition onward, Seurat became good friends with artists such as Paul Signac, Camille Pissarro, Henri Edmond-Cross, and others. (Herbert 83) These artists, most of who belonged to the Societe des Artistes Independants, were more radical than Seurat's Ecole friends both artistically and politically.

In October 1885, Seurat also became friends with a group of writers known as the Symbolists who sought to revolutionize their art by emphasizing "the evocation of mood and underlying reality rather than the precise rendition of nature". (Leighton 133) Seurat became so involved in this social group of artists and writers that from 1886 onwards, "Seurat effectively belonged to a small and esoteric avant-garde whose activities were confined almost exclusively within a square kilometer". (Smith)Though hardly anything is known about the political beliefs of Seurat, journalist Felix Feneon argued by default that "one can assume that Seurat shared the views of his friends, because his literary and artistic comrades…belonged to anarchist circles, and if his opinions had been opposed to theirs it would have been noticed." (qtd Thomson 95) Whether or not Seurat was a leftist, after the 1884 exhibition of Bathers, he was increasingly exposed to anarchism and criticisms of the bourgeoisie. This may have contributed to his interest in satirizing the bourgeoisie as he did in Grande Jatte, and contrasting them with working class as he does in Models.

YOUR BROWSING HISTORY A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - Google Arts & Culture A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Georges Seurat1884-1886 The Art Institute of Chicago In his best-known and largest painting, Georges Seurat depicted people relaxing in a suburban park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande Jatte. The artist worked on the painting in several campaigns, beginning in 1884 with a layer of small horizontal brushstrokes of complementary colors. He later added small dots, also in complementary colors, that appear as solid and luminous forms when seen from a distance.Seurat's use of this highly systematic and "scientific" technique, subsequently called Pointillism, distinguished his art from the more intuitive approach to painting used by the Impressionists. Although Seurat embraced the subject matter of modern life preferred by artists such as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he went beyond their concern for capturing the accidental and instantaneous qualities of light in nature. Seurat sought to evoke permanence by recalling the art of the past, especially Egyptian and Greek sculpture and even Italian Renaissance frescoes.

As he explained to the French poet Gustave Kahn, "The Panathenaeans of Phidias formed a procession. I want to make modern people, in their essential traits, move about as they do on those friezes, and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color." Some contemporary critics, however, found his figures to be less a nod to earlier art history than a commentary on the posturing and artificiality of modern Parisian society.Seurat made the final changes to La Grande Jatte in 1889. He restretched the canvas in order to add a painted border of red, orange, and blue dots that provides a visual transition between the interior of the painting and his specially designed white frame.

Read more Title: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Date Created: 1884-1886 Seurat La Grande Jatte Poster | Zazzle Seurat La Grande Jatte Poster $13.15 20% off with code ZGOODBYE2016  Happy Holidays from Our Family to Yours 20% OFF SITEWIDE | Use Code: ZGOODBYE2016 | Ends Sunday | See Details Sold by  About this product Paper Type: Value Poster Paper (Matte) Your walls are a reflection of your personality. So let them speak with your favorite quotes, art, or designs printed on our posters! Choose from up to 5 unique paper types and several sizes to create art that’s a perfect representation of you. 45 lb., 7.5 point thick poster paper Matte finish with a smooth surface Economical option that delivers sharp, clean images with stunning color and vibrancy More paper types available under "Paper Options" Add a premium quality frame as an essential accessory available on 36 products Seurat La Grande Jatte Poster Seurat La Grande Jatte poster. Oil painting on canvas from 1886.

French neo-impressionist Georges Seurat’s most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte depicts park goers lounging by the lake on a sunny Sunday afternoon. A woman with a large bustle and a monkey on a leash stands with a black parasol next to a man in a top hat, small dogs run and play, and small children scamper about by the lakeside. The painting is one of the most renowned works of pointillism and makes a beautiful gift for fans of Seurat, neo-impressionism. Pointillism: Seurat's Grande Jatte and Circus font size: a a a Pointillism: Seurat's Grande Jatte and Circus What was different in the way this group of younger painters reacted to the color theories of Chevreul and other writers? How were they able to profit from Impressionist methods while reacting against some of their practices? Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (Un dimanche après-midi à l’Ile de la Grande Jatte), Georges Seurat, 1884-1886. Let us look at the painting Un Dimanche a la Grande Jatte.

The painting represents a Sunday on the island of the Grande Jatte. The work is often referred to as his “Manifesto Painting,” and is even noted as such by contemporary critics. It was large in size, the first painting to be executed entirely in the Pointillist technique and the first to include a great many people playing a major role. Every detail is carefully planned. The work required sketches on panel, 25 drawings and three important preliminary studies. Look at the illustration to see the contrast in technique with the slightly earlier painting (1884). Instead of workers enjoying themselves, this is strangely formal; figures are mostly seen in profile or frontal position. They seem rather like toy soldiers, an artificiality noted at the time. One critic wrote that the painting showed, “The banal promenade that people in their Sunday best take… in the places where it is accepted that one should stroll on a Sunday.” Also, note the use of color and technique of using “the dot.” The skirt of the woman in the center with a parasol is painted in an orange-pink hue. It casts a blue shadow. Her red jacket is seen against bright green grass.

The orange dress of the young girl running (to the right) has a blue-tinted shadow. The skirt of the woman with a parasol walking beside a man is predominantly purple — so it seems — but is made up of a myriad of hues. Notice the lighter yellowish “halo” separating the skirt from the foreground grass, particularly just behind her skirt. At the same time, Seurat defines form by brushstrokes: close, parallel strokes define the contour of the woman’s bustle. He continuously experiments in his manner of applying paint; in the sunlit grass, for example, short, even strokes are laid over one another. It is clear that Seurat never followed any of the popular theories rigidly. His paintings are also intended to convey social commentary. The Grande Jatte makes use of symbols. A monkey in French (and female) is known as “singesse,” denoting a prostitute. The smartly dressed woman is fishing — but for what? Then, as now, spectators have questioned Seurat’s meaning.

Whether Seurat intended the Bathers and this painting to be considered as pendants (a pair) is still debated; certainly he contrasts the natural world with the unpleasant artificiality of bourgeois life, as these artists saw it. However, the critics applauded such elements as the controlled surface of the painting, the use of aerial perspective, which gives an impression of space, and Seurat’s deeply shadowed foreground that leads into a light, bright distance. Detail of the Grand Jatte, above the dog. Close-up of the paint on canvas in the Grand Jatte. Strictly speaking, Pointillism refers to the technique of using dots of pure color in such a way that, seen at the appropriate distance, they achieve maximum luminosity. However, a pointillist painting is no more “luminous” than anything else that is printed with small dots, such as a magazine photograph. You can see the dots above. Divisionism is a broader term meaning that it is possible to obtain brighter hues of color such as green, orange and purple, by a series of dots (or blobs) of both primary colors so that they are optically intermingled in the spectator’s eye (rather than being pre-mixed).

The artists prefer the term Neo-Impressionism (again, coined by a critic — this time Felix Feneon) as a description of their work. The following example, Seurat’s The Circus, is an excellent example of Divisionism. Be sure to enlarge the detailed images. The Circus, Georges Seurat, 1890-91. Full painting, and two detailed views. This appears to be the first painting in which Seurat shows his debt to the newly-developed art of the poster, in particular the celebrated Cheret. The circus theme was often covered in the 1880s, especially by Renoir, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. However, Seurat’s Circus, far from a merely anecdotal rendering of a modern form of entertainment, constitutes one of the most impressive applications of Divisionist theory.

My Art Review : Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte (1884-86) by Georges Seurat | My French Quest My Art Review : Sunday Afternoon on the Island of la Grande Jatte (1884-86) by Georges Seurat Art Art Review France History Paris Seurat Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat In the 1880s, the Ile de la Grand Jatte, a small island northwest of Paris, had become a popular playground for the working-class parisians. Sundays had been sanctioned by the Third Republic for workers to spend time with their families and to “avoid pubs and protest rallies and ensure order and stability through their upright behaviour”. Georges Seurat in his painting Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) portrays these workers relaxing in a fictional Arcadia. Just a year prior, Seurat had painted this island in Bathing Place, Asinieres from the other side of the Seine, showing the relaxing activities of boating and swimming. For the first time, this area could be reached by train and therefore became accessible for all classes.

In a guidebook written in 1885, the Ile de la Grand Jatte was described as: “a rustic Eden which affords the youth of Paris charms which regularly prove irresistible. On holidays and Sundays, people take lunch on the worn-out grass and swings, skittles, and games of toad-in-the-hole spring up in place of the absent trees”(Louis Barron Les Environs de Paris, L’ile de la Grande-Jatte, 30). In La Grande Jatte, Seurat shows the nature of class distinction in this painting through the diverse ages, dress, activities of elegant men and ladies, soldiers, nannies, bourgeois and workers. It is a mixing of social class that had just begun to take shape in the modernity of Paris. Seurat’s work holds a balance between the diversity of these social classes with the uniform activities: fishing, reading, boating, strolling, watching sports (rowing), and relaxing. Notice the bourgeois couple with a pet monkey, in the foreground, approaching a worker (or perhaps boater) in his t-shirt and cap. Will the couple strike up a conversation with the man?

In most city jardins of Paris, this mixing would not be allowed during this time period. On the other hand, there is a contrast to the uniformity of activity with a distinct disconnect of his characters who are mostly in profile. The only exception can be seen in the center of the painting: a young woman with her parasol is holding the hand of a little girl dressed in a stark, white pinafore ( this painting represents a pivotal scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off recalling the angst of misunderstood youth, or more specifically, Cameron!). Who belongs to whom in this painting? It is not clear what these character’s next moves are. As they are walking towards the Seine, will they stop and talk with strangers? It is not likely that they arrived together, but will they begin to mingle in this small space and shade? Sunday Afternoon in Jardin des Plantes A framed print of this painting which I bought at the Art Institute of Chicago has hung in my bedroom since 1997.

The original colors of the massive canvas of 207 by 308 centimeters have faded from when Seurat first painted it as he experimented with different pigments and style (pointillism), but the basic theme still fascinates me. I like to see Seurat’s women reading journals and novels showing the equality of intelligence and interests. I have tried to imagine which character I would be in the painting: the young woman reading, or fishing, or sitting with her friends chatting and laughing, or perhaps the little girl running freely through the park without a care in the world. Sunday Afternoon in Jardin du Luxembourg While studying abroad in Paris last year, I spent many Sundays after church at public parks and visiting museums (which are free on the first Sunday of each month), and thinking about Seurat’s painting. Even though the clothes and activities have changed ( and I’ve yet to see a pet monkey), one hundred and fifty years later, Parisians still enjoy their Sunday afternoons! Copyright 2015 by Robyn Lowrie.

May be quoted in part or full only with attribution to Robyn Lowrie ( Like this: Neo-Impressionists at Georgia State University - StudyBlue Size: 10 Views: 10 Neo-Impressionism Term coined by Felix Feneon in the 1880s describing the movement of artists who were inspired by and were reacting to the Impressionist style; notably Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. Paul Signac French Neo-Impressionist painter who, along with George Seurat, developed the theory of Divisionism. Painted, 'Opus 217' or 'Portrait of Felix Feneon against a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones and Colours,' 1890. Advertisement ) Georges Seurat French Neo-Impressionist painter who, along with Paul Signac, developed the theory of Divisionism. Died at the age of 31. Painted, 'Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,' 1883-6.

Divisionism/Pointillism Art theory developed by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat in which points of complimenting points of color are scientifically arranged to give the illusion of blending when seen from a distance. Later called "Pointillism" by Felix Feneon. 'Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jate', 1883-86. By Georges Seurat. 'Opus 217' by Paul Signac. Portrait of art critic and supporter of Neo-Impressionists, Felix Feneon. In this work Signac applies his belief that upward strokes and warm colors create positive emotions and downward strokes and cool colors create negative emotions, expresses his feeling that art is best when it's harmonious. Principle of Simultaneous Contrasts Developed by Michel-Eugene Chevreul who observed that "when the retinal area is stimulated by a colour, it produces an afterimage of it's complementary colour, and that constrasting colours stimulate each other". Camille Pissaro One of the founders of the Impressionists who, in the last Impressionist exhibit, created a separate section in which to showcase the Neo-Impressionists. "Art is Harmony.

Harmony is th eanalogy of contrary and of similar elements of tone, of colour, and of line, considered according to their dominants and under the influence of light in gay, calm, or sad combinations." Georges Seurat Neo-Impressionism Georges SEURAT (1859-1891), founder of Divisionism The term Neo-Impressionism refers to a pictorial technique where color pigments are no longer mixed either on the palette or directly on canvas, but instead placed as small dots side by side. Mixing of colors takes place from a suitable distance, in the observor's eye, as an "optical mixture". In the early 1880s, French painter Georges Seurat studied writings on color theory by French chemists Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), Charles Henry, and American physicist Ogden Rood, and invented a new painting technique that he named "separation of color" or "Divisionism", the main advantage of which is to give a greater vibrancy of color.

Seurat's first large painting (206x305cm) "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" - 1884-1886 may be considered as the founding masterpiece of Divisionism. The Art Institute of Chicago 1886, the beginnings of post-Impressionism : Symbolism and Neo-impressionism currents "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte " was first exhibited at the last Impressionist Group Exhibition of 1886 where Pissarro forced the presence of Seurat and Paul Signac - who will later become the main propagandist of Divisionism - on Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Caillebotte who would retire from the exhibition. 1886 may be seen as a turning point in French painting : the last year for the Impressionists Group, at last acknowledged in their country and celebrated abroad through a successful exhibition organized by French art dealer Durand-Ruel in New-York.

the date of birth of two artistic secessions in French painting, one derived from the literary Symbolist movement questioning the principle of Realism in effect in painting since Courbet, represented by Gauguin and the Nabis taking as models the older Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) and Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), the other one around Seurat et Signac that sees in Divisionism a new and scientific approach of Impressionism. Front of Tub Looking at Seurat's Divisionism in this context, it appears at its beginnings to be only a pictorial variation of Impressionism, which Pissarro will call "a scientific Impressionism". Technics changes, but subjects and realism remain impressionist. Seurat died at the age of only 32, leaving a major individual work. Signac later renamed Divisionism as "Pointillism", but as soon as 1886, writer and art critics Félix Fénéon, who will become Divisionism greatest defender, call it "Neo-Impressionism".

Neo-impressionism spreads from France to Europe Neo-impressionist painters will regularly exhibit their paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. This new Exhibition fair was created in 1884 on the initiative of some 400 artists disappointed with the Official "Salon de Paris", and will be opened to all artists without any jury. At the first Salon des Independants of 1884, Seurat met Signac (1863-1935) and a few other painters who will soon form the first Neo-Impressionist circle : Albert Dubois-Pillet (1846-1890), Charles Angrand (1856-1926) et Henri-Edmond Cross (1856-1910).

With his painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte " exhibited twice at the Impressionist Show and at the Salon des Independants of 1886 in Paris, Seurat will soon attract new followers : Maximilien Luce (1858-1941), Léo Gausson (1860-1944), Louis Hayet (1864-1940)... "The Grande-Jatte" will also be exhibited at the "Salon des Vingt" in Brussels in february 1887, and the new movement around Seurat will spread through Belgium with new disciples : Théo Van Rysselberghe, Henry Van de Velde, William Finch... who will exhibit as soon as 1888 on Seurat and Signac side at the Salon des Indépendants. After Belgium, Neo-Impressionism will spread to Holland (Toorop, Bremmer...), then to Germany and Switzerland, and later to Italy.

From the beginning Camille Pissarro was seduced by Seurat's Divisionism, and from 1886 to 1891 painted in a pointillist manner, although preferring small strokes to dots, before he finally went back to a more Impressionist technique, as he felt he was imprisoned in a too impersonal painting. He later wrote in 1896 concerning the systematic division of color : "I find it impossible to follow my sensations, to give life and movement... Very likely I was not made for this art which gives me the feeling of death levelling". Nevertheless, Pissarro's technique will keep from this pointillist period a trend for small color strokes. Van Gogh, as he arrived in Paris in 1886, also took a great interest in Seurat's theories and painted several works in a pointillist manner. Until his death in 1891, Seurat will apply in his large major paintings an always more rigorous and austere divisionist technique. The post-Seurat Neo-Impressionism was to free itself from this strict pointillist technique in which Pissarro felt imprisoned, especially through Paul Signac's work evolution.

A new Neo-Impressionism with SIGNAC From 1892 on, Signac, a sailing lover, regularly sejourns in Saint-Tropez. His style becomes more intuitive and his color touches larger, his palette more luxuriant. "Compared with Signac's luminous and light paintings, Seurat's paintings seem grey and immobile", contemporary art critics Julius Meier-Graefe writes to describe the chromatic intensity of Signac's paintings. Thus Signac gives birth to a second Neo-impressionism. From 1895 on, Signac "illuminates" Neo-Impressionism through works as "La bouée rouge" (The red buoy) -1895, "Saint-Tropez, l'orage" (saint-Tropez, the storm) - 1895, "Voiles et pins" (Sails and pines) - 1896. It is this new liberated Neo-Impressionism, its brilliant and luminous colors, which will later influence the Fauve painters and the Expressionists, whereas that of Seurat, more rational, will attract attention of Cubist painters due to its "scientific clarity of conception".

Unlike Impressionist painters, Seurat and Signac, wishing to give a scientific and meaningful basis to their painting, will write treatises which will have much influence over the young painters who were to do the art of the XXth century ("From Eugène Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism" - Paul Signac, 1898). This is the case when Henri Matisse, after he had met with Signac at Saint-Tropez and Cross at the Lavandou, paints "Luxe, calme et volupté" ("Luxury, Calm and Happiness") - 1905, a work in which their influence appears clarly, in the composition as well as in the use of a divisionist technique . It is then the beginning of Fauvism, the monotonous and regular division of color touches of Pointillism will extend to many other different forms, and colors will soon take precedence over representation concern. Modern art in the XXth century will emphasize non-realistic stylisation in painting, to which Neo-Impressionism had opened the way.

Neo-Impressionism, a source of original works Despite this aspect of Neo-Impressionism as an essential contribution to art history, there remain, besides Seurat and Signac, many beautiful works of little known painters. One can measure the originality and the diversity of these Neo-Impressionist artists, who transformed a difficult technique into art : Dubois-Pillet, Angrand, Cross, Luce, Van Risselberghe, Finch, Lemmen, Toorop...

Question: Which French neo-impressionist painted Sunday Afternoon at the Island of La Grande Jatte?
Answer: Georges Seurat