A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884 Georges Seurat A Sunday on La Grande Jatte medium’s is an oil on canvas artwork painted by Georges Seurat for two years. His technique is basically painterly. It depicts realistic experiences of people at that time while having a relaxing Sunday in a suburban park in an island in Seine River. For some, it is as if Seurat wanted the ‘characters’ in his work to parade in nature. The elements that are highlighted in the painting are texture, value, and color. Georges Seurat used the form of painting called divisionism or most commonly known as pointilism. He was the first to use such form.

This form projects a certain kind of rough texture for the artwork. The importance of value is given significance in portraying the feeling of the painting, giving it a certain feel of tranquility. Color is largely seen on how a serene Sunday should feel, happy and full of positive emotions. The painting’s subject matter conveys the peacefulness the people at that time felt, how the people just slowly walk or sit around inhaling the beauty of their surroundings. It is basically a 2D painting in form. The painting literally communicates the calmness of that particular day. Looking at it makes you calm and reminiscing.

Seurat’s work of art portrays a serene, calming moment where different kinds of people gather in the shoreline of an island in Seine River, taking pleasure in a Sunday afternoon. The artist’s seeming ‘cast’ composed of soldiers, boaters, the fashionably and casually dressed, the old and the young, families, couples, and single man and women. It appears to be that he is trying to assemble a certain kind of community consisting of different class of people. What is notable in this canvas is the characters’ explicit lack of interaction suggesting that it is because of their diverse class order.

Seurat suggests starting a revolution in Impressionism, making his subjects like those in ancient Greeks live and move in a modern setting. The artist used oil paint in order to finish his work. His reverence for the material is evident on how he used it in a unique manner thus creating a certain kind of style called pointillism. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte serves as the start of Neo-Impressionism at the 19th century where Impressionism is widely popular. While both of them values the depiction of realism in painting and canvas, Neo-Impressionism differs because it is more defined and more conservative.

As a whole, the painting exudes such immense harmony to people which particularly why I become fond of it. It also gives you an expression of anonymity, making you feel like you also want to have a piece of what the characters or the people in the painting are experiencing. In all fairness, the artwork gives calmness to people and serene to troubled heart. Sources: The Art Institute of Chicago http://www. artic. edu/aic/exhibitions/seurat/seurat_themes. html Artble http://www. artble. com/artists/georges_seurat/paintings/a_sunday_afternoon_on_the_island_of_la_grande_jatte