A Sunday Afternoon On The Grande Jatte Analysis

When it appeared in the eighth (and final) Impressionist exhibit in May of 1886, Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte—1884 (FIG. 1) left an indelible impression on the critics, artists, and public of the time. Here was a painting that was a collage of contradictions—impressionist paintings were all about modernity, plein air painting, spontaneity, and improvisation. The Grande Jatte was a painting of modern life, but it was hardly impressionistic. There was nothing spontaneous about the painting. Everything was clearly modeled and studied. Figures were rigid. The painting was enormous (2 meters by 3 meters). And the surface of dots was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. The result? Seurat created the Neo-Impressionist
4) was signed and dated by Seurat. The drawing is an early (but certainly not the only) attempt by Seurat to portray a peasant at work. In it, Seurat uses slashing lines to define the bending body of the worker and applies lighter and darker shades to provide contrast in the clothing. In Woman Leaning on a Parapet by the Seine (FIG. 5), Seurat begins to perfect his unique style that he uses in the Grande Jatte; the rounded form of the woman, the contrasting perpendicularity of the trees, and the two trees boxing in the woman are ideas found in the Grande Jatte. In Nurse with Child (FIG. 6), he develops his style further and focuses solely on the curving shape of the female figure. In a rare choice for Seurat, the child directly confronts the viewer with its gaze . His Girl in a Slouch Hat (FIG. 6.5) again focuses on the curves of the girl, but also throws in the use of shadows and light, which become major focuses for the Grande Jatte. These drawings provide little to no narrative (in the Harvester, the harvester is clearly at work, but there's no detail showing the space he is in), but they do "signal his social awareness.". And as a general rule, his rural figures were peasant/working types and his city figures were the people one would see traveling around city streets (such as laundresses or vendors). Drawing was incredibly important to Seurat and in his very short life, he exhibited far more drawings
In Trees (FIG. 12), he sketched the trees which eventually became a major element in the upstage center area of the final work. He very precisely captured the details and structure of the tree, drawing in a realistic and classical style. He did not draw an impression of the trees, he drew the trees. He did this again in Tree Trunks (FIG. 13), where he sketched the distinctive, straight trunks that populated the upper-right corner of the final work. At a certain point in the midst of his preparations, Seurat decided that this painting was going to be large, as revealed in the aptly named Sketch with Many Figures (FIG. 14). It is, admittedly, a mess of figures with plenty of overlapping body parts. It is far removed from the careful, precise placement of the final painting. However, notably, this is the first panel of his that includes multiple figures at multiple levels in the foreground (the background has numerous figures--far more than the final painting). There is a mixture of standing and sitting and reclining people. The woman in the orange dress eventually becomes part of the final painting (where she is portrayed as fishing). Comparing this to Seated Figures, one can clearly see how Seurat was developing this painting into something far more than just a landscape. To accomplish this, he relied largely on trial and error, painting numerous studies until he achieved something he liked.