Baudelaire once wrote about Eugène Delacroix, “An unbiased mind perceives with stupefaction that even in his first productions, even in his youth, he was great. At times, he may have been more delicate, at times more singular, at times he may have been more of a painter, but he was always great.” However, these words are also relevant to French artist, Georges Seurat, the disciple of the painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Delacroix. Having a career that roughly spanned for mere seven years, ridiculed by the establishment and ignored by the collectors, Seurat was still one of the giants of modern art. Inspired by the master colorist Eugène Delacroix and Impressionists’ colors and brushstrokes, he invented a new technique, called Pointillism, which includes precise application of paint in small dots and Divisionism. Besides, Seurat was one among the glorious names of the dying nineteenth century, along with Van Gogh and Lautrec, whose industrial lives broke down at the height of their elan. The whole nineteenth century broke down when Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890, Seurat suddenly died when he was only thirty-one, and Lautrec burnt himself out at the age of thirty-seven. Despite their deaths earlier, they left us fully achieved work bearing a ring of their genius. Though Seurat was less isolated than Lautrec or Van Gogh, he soon attached to his companions, who recognized him as their teacher and leader, later forming a Neo-Impressionist group. By surrounding himself with young artists and encouraging the venerated Camille Pissarro, he was able to lead the struggle for a new outlook expressed by a new method. One of the finest artworks, which he left for us through the use of the new method of Divisionism, which we are gonna discuss here, is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte | Fast Knowledge
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is an oil on canvas painting by the Neo-Impressionist artist, Georges Seurat that depicts the use of Divisionism. He portrays a Sunday afternoon of Parisians of different social classes, enjoying near the riverside while keeping a calming and free energy in the artwork. The artwork resides in the Art Institute of Chicago.
General Information About the Painting.
1. Artist’s Statement.
“Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and similar elements of tone, of color, and of line, conditioned by the dominant key, and under the influence of a particular light, in gay, calm or sad combinations.”
2. Subject Matter.
The painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte depicts people from social classes and costumes, strolling and relaxing in a park, located on the west of Paris on La Grande Jatte, an island in the Seine River. Though the subject portrays modern life, Seurat uses ancient art forms, especially, Egyptian and Greek sculpture to showcase the connectivity of modern life with ancient sublimity.
Seurat once wrote,
“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.”
In the painting, there are approximately forty people sitting or standing, clearly outlined in the heat of the sun or surrounded by shade, as well as several animals and a river with canoes and sailboats. The epic landscape artwork resembles a peaceful Sunday afternoon where everyone is busy enjoying to have their best time. While there is a sense of a contemporary Arcadia created, it remains sober and unromantic despite the richness of light. I will tell you the entire subject matter of the painting in the later sections of the article.
3. Artist.
One of the significant modern artists, who invented Pointillism, Georges Seurat, composed the artwork, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Despite his reserved, shy nature, young Seurat had a strangely proud-looking studio on the Boulevard de Clichy in Paris. On the surface, he appeared to lead a rather uneventful life compared to other 19th-century artists such as Vincent van Gogh. Despite his passion for art, he could not stir it.
The contemporary writer Arsène Alexandre wrote about him,
“Seurat was one of those affable thickheads who look as if they were afraid of everything but in reality fear nothing. He worked doggedly and led the isolated life of a monk in his little studio.”
Chiefly remembered as the pioneer of the Neo-Impressionist technique, he invented innovations by studying the new quasi-scientific theories about color and expression. Born into a middle-class family, his father, Chrysostome Antoine Seurat, worked as a legal official in La Villette. His father saved quite a good amount of money, but Seurat did well when it came to financial independence, which is why he never had money worries. His mother belonged to an old-established Parisian family who had produced several sculptors since 1750.
4. Date.
The artist composed A Sunday on La Grande Jatte between 1884-86.
5. Provenance.
A little provenance of the artwork is that it was first shown to the public at the last show of the Impressionists under Pissaro. Now, since Pissaro was the only painter who participated in all of the eight exhibitions, he stood out as the patriarch of the group. At the time when Seurat wanted to exhibit his artwork, Pissaro just met him. At a time when Impressionism seemed in danger of fading away in its pursuit of pure visual sensation, the theories of the younger painter offered greater stability and new possibilities. The exhibition probably fulfilled one of Pissarro’s personal expectations and despite the objections of exhibition organizer Eugène Manet, Pissarro adopted and promoted his new friend, Seuret immediately and wholeheartedly. This was how the artwork was presented to the exhibition.
Again, Seurat presented around nine of his paintings: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, The Seine at Courbevoie, three landscapes from Grandcamp, The Angleris of the Levy Bequest in Troyes, and three drawings, including the enigmatic Condolences. This was the first time when the Parisians saw him work and discovered a whole new aspect of his talent. The critics were generally moderate in tone, but the figures of Grande-Jattee were considered too stiff and were described with words like “shoddy manikins,” “tin soldiers,” “Wooden dolls,” and “posts.” But at the same time, the light of the artwork was much admired. However, the exhibition created a lot of controversy and Seuret probably heard a lot worse than good things, which I will tell you in later sections of the article.
The critic Roger Marx wrote a review of the show,
“Among the independent artists, there is one, Monsieur Seurat, who must be singled out. At the time of the Salon of 1882, I praised an excellent portrait of his, done in charcoal, which I was happy to see again. It is accompanied by a series of sketches and a landscape of striking aerial transparency, over which the lively light of a hot summer sun plays freely; all this is done in a sincere and candid style and reveals a depth of conviction, that one regrets not to find among certain ‘converts to impressionism.’”
6. Location.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
7. Technique and Medium.
The artist used oil on canvas medium for the artwork. The technique used here to compose this artwork was Divisionism. By juxtaposing dots of multi-colored paint through scientific theories of colors, Seurat’s technique allowed the viewer’s eye to blend colors on the canvas optically.
Many of the readers might confuse divisionism with a pointillist manner. So, let me tell you the difference between them. Though both of them include quick brushstrokes with similar speed, Divisionism adds a pure touch with balanced elements, maintaining the laws of contrast.
Signac with whom the artist invented this technique relates to this artwork,
“Confronting his subject, Seurat, before touching his little panel with paint, scrutinizes, compares, looks with half-shut eyes at the play of light and shadow, observes contrasts, isolates reflections, plays for a long time with the cover of the box which serves as his palette; then, fighting against matter as against nature, he slices from his little heap of colors arranged in the order of the spectrum the various colored elements which form the tint destined best to convey the mystery he has glimpsed. Execution follows on observation, stroke by stroke the panel is covered…”
To describe Divisionism, Signac explains that it means,
“to assure the benefits of luminosity, color, and harmony; by the optical mixture of uniquely pure pigments (all tints of the prism and all their tones); by the separation of various elements (local color, light, and their interactions); by the balancing of these elements and their proportions (according to the laws of contrast, gradation and irradiation); by the selection of a brush stroke commensurate with the size of the canvas.”
Furthermore, the artist said that his ambition was to
“make modern people in their essential traits move about as they do on [ancient Greek] friezes and place them on canvases organized by harmonies.”
| Artist | Georges Seurat |
| Year Painted | 1884–1886 |
| Period | Neo-Impressionism |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 207.5 × 308.1 cm (81 3/4 × 121 1/4 in.) |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | Art Institute of Chicago |
In-Depth Description of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
About the Artist: Georges Seurat.
Born on December 2, 1859, in the Rue de Bondy, located in La Villette, the northeast quarter of Paris, Seurat’s father was a bailiff. Starting from his youth, he took customary classes that any student might take, but then he enrolled himself in the school of design when he turned sixteen. The main emphasis of his youth was that he copied dusty plaster casts of antique sculpture that cluttered the studies of this period. One of Seurat’s schoolmates, Justin Lequien, who won second honors at the Grand Prix de Rome, later observed and taught his pupils how to draw noses and ears after lithographic models at the school. It was at this school that he met a young man, Edmond Aman-Jean. After they became friends with each other, they entered École des Beaux-Arts in 1878 together, where they studied under Henri Lehmann.
Both of them rebelled against the narrowness of the official studios as the teachers would often do their best to adequate them with degenerate classicism. They had a natural curiosity and a taste for the difficult, which led them to resist academic conceptions and seek other pastures. For a long time of period, they were completely devoted to Ingres, which can be clearly seen in Seurat’s studies.
The earliest dated drawings of the artist are from 1874, which include mostly copies of illustrations, a statue of Vercingétorix, the martyred Gallic opponent of Caesar, which were done before he entered the design school. When he came into professional tutelage, the young Seurat began to make better models and a freer style. Some of the examples of this fact are his portrait of Sir Richard Southwell and a sketch of Poussin’s hand based on the Ingres’ Angelica.
As Seurat achieved mastery of line, he then became interested in the theory of complementary colors, leading him to Delacroix. Hence, he visited museums regularly so that he could spend much of his time in the libraries where he studied engravings and other famous artworks.
Now, that I have given you a brief on the artist’s early life, let us finally start learning about the circumstances under which Seurat painted A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
Historical Provenance of the Painting.
In 1885, Seurat was busy painting in Grandcamp for which he brought several seascapes done in low tones filled with calmness and lyricism; Signac, who was working on the bank of the Seine, made the acquaintance of Armand Guillaumin. Now, it was Armand Guillaumin’s studio where Signac met Camille Pissaro, later introducing Seurat to him. At this time, Seurat and Signac, both explained to Pissarro why they resolved not to mix their colors on their palette and instead employ them with the tiny brushstrokes of pure colors, permitting the mixture to be accomplished optically. Further, they also explained the methodological observance of the laws of contrasting and complementary colors. As Camille Pissarro was convinced that this technique could bring a more rigorous control of sensations and feelings, bringing a whole new stage to Impressionism, he accepted the audacious technique of “Divisionism” or “Pointillism.”
In one of the letters to the dealer of Pissarro, Paul Durand-Ruel, he explains the technique, stating that what he wanted was,
“to seek a modern synthesis by methods based on science, that is based on the theory of colors developed by Monsieur Chevreul, on the experiments of Maxwell and the measurements of N.O. Rood; to substitute optical mixture for the mixture of pigments, which means to seek to decompose tones into their constituent elements; for this type of optical mixture stirs up luminosities more intense than those created by mixed pigments.”
Now, as this new technique was invented, the only work was to actually put in the art of painting. Hence, Seurat, Signac, and Pissarro set to work.
It was at this time that Seurat began the large composition, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which he already mediated for a long time. He did it by doing a great number of drawings and sketches in oils. He composed the artwork in no less than six and one half by ten feet in size, which assembled around forty people here with its canoes and sailboats. This work took two years to complete, from December 1884 until the spring of 1886. Not only this, the composition did include some twenty drawings on the spot or from models in his studio and thirty-odd paintings that were small and rapidly executed.
Artist While Painting La Grande Jatte.
Coming to the artist’s life while he painted the composition, Seurat worked on the island of La Grande Jatte. One of his friends, Angrand who worked with him during this time, wrote,
“As in summer the grass grew high on the bank and prevented Seurat from seeing the boat which he had put in the very forefront- and he complained of this mischance- I helped him by cutting the grass; for I was almost certain that he was going to sacrifice the boat. Although he was not the slave of nature, he was respectful of it, for he was not imaginative. His concern centered most of all on tints, tones, and their interactions.”
Seurat put his entire energy into his artwork for several months. In fact, he was so absorbed in the artwork that sometimes he even refused to lunch with his best friends, fearing that it would weaken his concentration. Hence, he reached the island in the morning and devoted his entire afternoons to work on his composition in the studio, hardly even taking breaks to eat food.
After his friends saw the artwork, they praised him to which Seurat remarked,
“They see poetry in what I have done. No, I apply my method, and that is all there is to it.”
Coming to the Exhibition day.
Next, when the painting was exhibited in the Impressionist exhibition, it was exhibited too narrow, which is why they were not able to see the artwork at that distance, which he intended, but they were very much provoked by it. The Belgian poet, Émile Verhaeren recorded his impressions,
“It covered a whole panel, flanked by the Bec du Hoc and the Harbor of Grandcamp. The novelty of this art intrigued me. Not for an instant did I doubt its complete sincerity or profound originality; these were patent in the work before me. That evening, I spoke of it to artists; they heaped me with laughter and ridicule.”
The composition shows a personal quality, which dominates the entire room. Due to this artwork’s presence, the lyricism of Signac and the naive rigidity of Pissaro were completely ignored, and the critics only claimed that this new method completely destroyed the painter’s personalities who employed it.
Also, a literary critic, Emile Hennequin, in La Vie Moderne, writes,
“We can not accept his Sunday at La Grande Jatte, for the tones in this painting are crude and the figures are set against the light in a way which makes them resemble poorly articulated wax figures.”
Lastly, there was only one critic, Félix Fénéon, who proclaimed an admiration for the new painting.
Subject Matter of the Artwork.
The painting consists of around forty figures with a landscape, enjoying afternoons. The figures appear to be frozen in their postures as if their contours were extensively simplified. It was due to the observation of natural movements by the artist.
The landscape consists of a summer sky with the boats floating side by side and a group of people even enjoying the boat ride. To the land, the artist painted forty people in a simplified manner. They are rigorously drawn with few of the full-faced figures, or showing back, some even in profile and few seated at the right angles. The artist paints a transparent atmosphere with vibrancy. There is a sense of connection with this painting due to its implication of colors and the relaxed arrangement of the figures.
However, the artwork has a resemblance with Gothic Art. Like, look at the rigidity and arrangement of the figures. Seurat synthesizes attitudes, postures, and gaits to express a deeper concentration, exactness, and sincerity toward the composition. The gestures of the people are prominent, which says that the artist used great observation skills.
In 1890, Jule Christophe penned a contemporary description of the painting,
“On an afternoon beneath a blazing summer sky, we see the Seine glittering in full daylight, smart villas on the opposite bank, steamers, sailing boats and a rowing boat gliding across the water. Close to us, beneath the trees, are people taking a walk, fishing, sitting on the lawn, or stretching out on the cyanine bluegrass. We see young girls, a nanny, and an elderly grandmother beneath a parasol, exuding a Dantesque dignity from beneath her bonnet. Lolling in the grass and smoking his pipe is a canoeist, a brilliant shaft of light catching the lower leg of his pale trousers. A dark violet pug is sniffing in the grass, a chestnut butterfly flutters past, and a young mother is holding the hand of her small daughter, clad in a white dress and a salmon-colored belt. Two soldiers from the Saint-Cyr military academy are standing not far from the water’s edge; a young girl has gathered a posy of flowers; a red-haired child in a blue dress is sitting on the grass. We see a married couple holding their baby in their arms, and on the extreme right of the picture, the hieratic and scandalous couple- a young dandy holding his arm out to his chi-chi companion, who has a purple-ultramarine monkey on a yellow lead.”
The description depicts the artwork pretty well. Seurat portrays a land in the suburbs as a modern Arcadia but one of the things to notice here is that he didn’t paint any bottles or picnic hampers on the grass. In addition to this, there are no restaurants, cafes, boatyards, or private residences, which already took two-thirds of the island in the 1800s. The visitors are either taking a stroll or relaxing in the shade, but none of them is either bathing or even removing their clothes. This might be because Seurat always loved the figures from Puvis de Chavannes’ painting, The Sacred Grove, Beloved of the Arts and Muses.
Seurat does not tell any anecdotes as if protagonists have neither a face nor body language or history and literature. To depict modernism, he just used formal attributes like a top hat, cane, or corset. If you look right at the center of the artwork, you will see a little girl dressed in white with her mother. Though there are white highlights distributed throughout the painting, this particular section of the canvas stands out chiefly because two figures stand just in front of the spectator. This is an imitation of the Renaissance fresco technique. They might have a symbolic meaning. A child could represent a symbol of hope. Plus, the white color in the center of colors acts as the prismatic color which is born of the white light and can be reverted back to it as well. The book by Hajo Duchting on Seurat explains the influences and the artwork in more detail, to which you can refer.
Formal Analysis of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
1. Line.
The artwork is organized on the vertical and horizontal planes simultaneously with the use of repeated perpendiculars enlivened with parasols, bustles, sails, and so on. These lines and limits of planes are at the same time, the apexes of angles where light and shade confront each other. One of the problems, that the artist solves through his mastery of line as well as color here is to create a certain rhythm of lines as well as harmonize the human figures with the landscape at the same time. I will tell you more about color and space in the later section.
Furthermore, looking closer, Seurat manages to create tranquility and calmness in the entire landscape through horizontal and vertical lines. The artist only uses a few diagonal lines, and that too to create a sense of motion and space. For instance, the shadows of trees by the shoreline are diagonal which adds more space to the artwork.
I am adding a detailed picture so that you understand more clearly.
2. Color and Space.
The artist used a variety of colors in this artwork. For instance, if you see the grass plot of shadows, you will find the grass colors immersed in the orange-tinted and thinly scattered sunlight with bits of purples that introduce a complement to the green. There are certain other colors like cyanine blue, greens, orange-tinted light, blacks, purples, yellows, or ultramarine.
The artist recombines the idea of differently colored rays of light instead of just a mixture of material colors. Félix Fénéon explains here,
“For the originators of this new painting every colored surface sends out colorations of diverse strengths, which tend to grow less; they interpenetrate like circles of waves, and the painting is unified and synthesized in the general sensation of harmony.”
The artwork has a different kind of luminosity. The green shadow, the golden grass, and the sky influence each other greatly as if one color interpenetrates the other to produce a tremendous sensation of life. But this is not it, Seurat separated the color of the object into its local color and the color of light, which adds a simultaneous contrast to the artwork.
According to Chevreul,
“Two bordering colors influence each other, each forcing its own complementary color upon the other. Green will give rise to crimson in the bordering area, red to bluish green, yellow to ultramarine, violet to greenish-yellow, and orange to cyanine blue: a contrast of shades of color. The lighter color appears to be even lighter, the darker even darker: a contrast of degrees of brightness.”
The Hajo Duchting book explains the use and choice of colors in this artwork in detail. Further, it also adds light to the technique of pointillism and its scientific approach.
Final Words.
The painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is a summer seascape, which is light, calm, and tranquil yet emotionless. When it was first shown in May 1886, it received mixed reactions and was even regarded as a divisionist manifesto but it was a new technique. However, when we see it today, it feels as if it is an alternating passage of pure impressionist brushwork. The scene with the luminosity might have hundreds of different reviews but for me, it was a quieter composition, which is mysterious in some ways, but is so encapturing as if it acts as a poem instead of a painting. Also, this article was really a brief introduction to the artwork as there is much more to learn about it. In fact, those who even want to learn pointillism should read about this artwork in detail, which is why I have suggested a book in the resources section that can be a good help to younger artists. Besides, let me know, what you think of this masterpiece.
Resources.
- The Art Story.
- Seurat by John Rewald.
- Georges Seurat, 1859-1891: The Master of Pointillism by Hajo Düchting.
- Seurat by Alain Madeleine-Perdrillat.
- Featured Image: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat; Georges Seurat, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Frequently Asked Questions.
The Sunday on La Grande Jatte portrays a summer seascape with around forty people enjoying the suburban park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande Jatte. The people here are seen in different postures, activities, and gestures but one of the odd things in the artwork is that it lacks a water bottle or even a picnic basket in the landscape.
There is not an exact number to give the worth of the painting as it is not on auction but according to Artsy, its worth can be $650 million.
A Sunday at La Grande Jatte consists of forty people, a monkey, and a dog with few boats. The artist used frozen and motionless figures.
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