9th task: Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

This is Georges

Georges Seurat was a French painter born in 1859 and he died when he was only 31.

His most famous masterpiece is named “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”; this is one of the best examples of neo-impressionism.

This painting was made with the technique of pointillism. This means that Seurat, with a lot of patience, painted little dots, one next to the other and with the right combinations, he could create the illusion of shapes, lights, shadows and different new colors if the dots where juxtaposed properly.

I love this painting, because it happens so much at the time in just one piece of fabric, you see people of different social classes. Some of them are really rich (they are wearing tuxedos and fancy clothes) and others are more humble. Also, it’s cool because depending on how far you are from the painting, you can see just millions of dots or the picture as a whole, with the people enjoying the afternoon, sharing with their family and friends, dogs running or even a monkey!

The monkey is on the lower right corner

What is peculiar about this painting is that most of the people seem to be on their own, but yet, they’re not lonely. Also Seurat achieved to make a loud place, like this little island placed on Siena river, and made it look so quiet, I mean, we can see that there’s a lot of people, some of them coming and going, playing, talking and, in general, spending some quality time, but at the same time it looks so peaceful, like a little piece of heaven.

Besides, we’ve got so many stories to imagine. There are so many different individuals, so different between each other, that makes impossible not to think about their lives, what they like, what did they do later that day. It takes you to another time and place.

Making this piece, took him two years. And I think it really worth it.