Famous Art of the People With Umbrellas Lounging on Sunday
Over the course of art history, certain pieces have come to symbolize entire artistic genres. Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Michelangelo'due south David, for case, define the Italian Renaissance; The Scream by Edvard Munch epitomizes Expressionism; and Pointillism is typified by Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon the the Island of La Grande Jatte .
Seurat completed this monumental masterpiece in the 1880s.In order to craft the larger-than-life scene, the artist meticulously applied millions of hand-painted dots to the canvas. Seurat pioneered this technique when painting A Sunday Afternoon the the Island of La Grande Jatte, sparking the kickoff of the Pointillist motility.
What is Pointillism?
Paul Signac, "The Pine Tree at Saint-Tropez," 1909 (Photo: Wikimedia Eatables Public Domain)
Introduced past Georges Seurat and beau French artist Paul Signac in 1886, Pointillism is a painting technique in which small, discrete dots work together to create a cohesive limerick. Although this aesthetic approach was largely inspired past the dappled brushstrokes of Impressionism, the genre is in fact a branch of Post-Impressionism, a major movement that emerged in the 1890s.
While the styles explored past Mail-Impressionist artists are diverse, nigh featured flatness, formality, and exaggerated colour in their piece of work—characteristics that are evident in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
The Process
Georges Seurat, Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," 1884 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)
Georges Seurat began painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jattein the bound of 1884. During this time, the artist lived and worked alongside the Impressionists in Paris. Like these artists, Seurat frequently painted scenery establish but outside of the French capital, including La Grande Jatte, a Seine River island situated to the west of Paris.
In order to perfect his painting of the popular park, Seurat completed a collection of preliminary sketches and drawings. Taking a cue from the Impressionists, he created these studies abroad from his studio anden plein air. This approach enabled Seurat to capture the color, light, and movement of the scene before him, which he revisited several times before finishing the final big-scale painting in 1886.
Why did he dedicate so much time to these preparatory sketches? Equally Pointillists, Seurat and Signac were particularly interested in playing with perception and experiment with optics, resulting in a comprehensive and meticulous painting process.
"Confronting his discipline," Signac explained, "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, and so . . . he slices from his little heap of colors arranged in the guild of the spectrum the diverse 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."
The Painting
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte depicts a typical outing for Parisians living in the 1880s. Facing the shimmering river and relying on umbrellas and trees for shade, they announced to enjoy a brief escape from city life, whether they're lounging on the grass, angling in the river, or even admiring the ambiance in the company of a pet monkey.
Though the subjects of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatteare rendered in an unrealistic and almost minimalist style, Seurat opted to identify them in a range of positions ("of some we run into the backs, some we see full-confront, some in contour, some are seated at right angles, some are stretched out horizontally, some are standing upward direct," art critic Félix Fénéon remarked in 1886). This decision adds a sense of realism to the otherwise stylized depiction and helps draws the viewer into the receding scenery.
Another optical pull a fast one on axiomatic in this painting is Seurat'south inclusion of an innovative painted "frame." According to the Art Institute of Chicago, this Pointillist border is supposed to "make the experience of the painting fifty-fifty more than intense" by adding even more colors, tones, and a textures to the composition.
Later on completing the painting in 1886, Seurat opted to exhibit information technology in the 8th and last Impressionist exhibition. While it was met with mixed reviews, it remained the artist'south most well-known piece of work of fine art until (and subsequently) his untimely death in 1891.
Lasting Significance
Until the plow of the century, A Dominicus Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatteremained in the possession of the Seurat family. It was then passed around different dealers until 1925, when information technology found a permanent abode at the Art Institute of Chicago. Today, it remains a highlight of the museum'due south collection and, arguably, the most celebrated work of Pointillism in the globe.
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Source: https://mymodernmet.com/georges-seurat-a-sunday-afternoon-on-the-island-of-la-grande-jatte/
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