SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE ISLAND OF LA GRANDE JATTE C. 1886

Although it was originally scorned, Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” was a scientific triumph and his most renowned masterpiece. Creating a groundbreaking but incredibly time intensive style called Pointillism, Seurat (1859 – 1891), a neo-Impressionist leader, rejected broad brushstrokes of mixed color, substituting tiny points of pure color which the observer’s eye blended in to images. Utilizing elaborate, scientifically devised linear structures and geometric order for compositional unity, the enormous canvas of “La Grande Jatte,” which contains more than 40 figures and their surroundings, took Seurat almost two years to complete.