Free Essay

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

In:

Submitted By arbaz123
Words 761
Pages 4
A Sunday La Grande Jatte The painting “A Sunday La Granda Jatte” is a canvas painted with oil in really small dots that makes up a whole picture and was produced in 1884. The image represents families in the late 1800s enjoying an afternoon in the park. The families are very wealthy because of the dresses and accessories they have on, for example the hats and cane. In addition the island these people are relaxing at is located in France and it is called La Grande Jatte. La Grande Jatte is painted by George Seurat who is a widely known painting in the era of impressionism with the technique known as pointillism. (technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are used to form an image) George Seurat was born in Paris, France and he was mostly raised by his mother. He first started to get art lessons from his uncle in his early years and then he went to a local art school. He attending various schools but ended up studying perception, color theory and the psychological power of line and form. (4) Which led him to start painting in the impressionism era with his bright light paintings. Impressionism is a 19th century art movement that originated with a group in Paris during 1870s to 1880s. Impressionism uses thin lines or dots to emphasize light, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. (3)
“A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” uses warm colors to represent the warmth family provides to each other and how they are always there for you. The people are facing sideways which makes them seem like they are trying to focus on a focal point of island. (1) But, Seurat does not depict the point that is being looked at by the people. He makes the peoples wealth the focal point of the painting because he wants to show us how society acts when wealth takes over. Furthermore, the faces depict sorrow which shows us how happiness cannot be bought by wealth and that is what these people are starting to realize. Most of the figure's view is focused on the river to the left of the painting. Even though the river is not significant to the viewer; but it draws attention because that is what all the people in the painting are looking at. (2) The figures at the front are also very close to the viewer, making the woman's dress in the front of the piece purposefully enlarged. George Seurat balances his paintings through size as they go from right to left. Right is the biggest and as it progress on to the left images become smaller as they go farther back too. The texture is very smooth and if you were to run your hand across the painting it would be very soft, mostly like due to the oil used to paint it. Also, the texture is smooth because of the warm colors that is used by Seurat to depict an afternoon at the park. All these elements are describing the argument or claim that wealth will not buy you happiness as far as I see it. His argument makes sense to a certain degree because it shows the sorrow in the faces of the wealthy. You can tell they are wealthy again because of their attire but, the painting can be looked at in different viewpoints. The figures in the painting are looking across the body of water but you cannot tell what it is. Also, maybe it is not sorrow in the faces but boredom of being rich, maybe both. In addition, in the back you can see a kid playing with herself, that might represent immaturity. It represents immaturity because she does not understand the conflicting feelings of the older people; she has not yet experienced wealth and control of money. So, she plays around and enjoys it is what Seurat might be trying to convey to us. All in all, his claim about money does not buy happiness is effective in the emotions of the adults.

Work Cited
1. "About This Artwork." A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
2. "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." Artble. Artble, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
3. "Impressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
4. "Georges Seurat Biography." Biography. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Artwork Essay

...A Friday Afternoon with the Island of La Grande Jatte In a recent visit to the Art Institute of Chicago I made it a special effort to view the painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This specific painting is located at the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, gallery 240. It is a Georges Seurat masterpiece and was created on an oil canvas. The painting illustrates a crowded park, on a hot summer day. There are people looking out into the water, while others lie in the shade of the trees in the green grass, enjoying each other’s company. Several people are holding umbrellas to keep cool from the hot rays of the sun, due to what seems to be a blistering hot day along the water. It seems to me, that all men and women are wearing a hat, except for the children, this marking a time period much earlier than our own. All of the shades in the painting seem to be of the warm color grouping and work well together in the overall painting. Within the collection of paintings in the room, this particular painting grabs the audience attention the most. It is quite large in size, about 7 by 10 feet. When I viewed this painting on Friday around 12:30 pm, there was somewhat of a crowd drawn to it. Georges Seurat created this painting through the use of different elements of form and style. He focused on simplified geometric forms and solid compositions. He used a method called Pointillism. Pointillism is defined as “the theory or practice in art of applying small...

Words: 840 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Considered the “Mummy’s Curse, ” a Series of Unexplainable, Unfortunate, or Tragic Events That Happened to the People Who Were Present at the Opening of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

...The Office Art Memo The Office Art Memo “Memorandum” Mario Williams Professor Alan Rodgers Humanities 112 8/15/11 Having to consider the choices both impressionist and post-impressionist, I have come to a decision. Three works from the impressionist period and three works from the post-impressionist period would be the best choice to make. I will deal with impressionist works in the paper first by identifying the impressionist and post-impressionist works. Then I will describe the choices of the painting to present to the CEO of my company with examples for my decision. While including examples why my choices fit the company’s image, I will a give a clear explanation. Keyword: Impressionist, post-impressionist, impressionism. The first painting is historically significant because it was one of the works that helps define impressionism on early work. It displays all the hallmark of impressionism. The second painting Boulevard des Capucines, painted by Claude Monet in 1873, is significant because its perspective was looking out from the first impressionist exhibition. This shows the marketplace of French impressionism. This place is where the painting is not born. However, it is where the movement first became known. In other words, it is the birthplace of the movement. This painting is significant because it shows the outline altogether. An important element of traditional painting that yet shows...

Words: 1071 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

George Seurat

...stands at 73 ¾ by 98 ¾ inches. It is thought that the painting was done somewhere between 1886-1888. Depicted in the painting is 3 models getting dressed, one is standing in the center looking at the viewer, the other to the right is sitting down putting on socks, and the other to the left has her back to the viewer. Strewn around the room are different articles of clothing and shoes, while in the background is a picture of another one of Seurat’s paintings, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte.” Georges Seurat was a French neoimpressionist painter in the 19th century. Seurat was born in 1859 and passed away in 1891 at the age of 31, after dying of pneumonia. He was well known for creating the pointillist style of paining by using tiny dots of color. He used a method called divisionism, which is defined as “a systematic refinement of the broken color of the impressionists.” Some of his more famous pieces are Baignade and Un Dimance à la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte), which is pictured in the background of Models, as mentioned earlier. Seurat is a very well known painter and his work had a great impact on the art community, and he is well recognized for his “influence in restoring harmonious and deliberate design and a thorough understanding of color combination to painting at a time when sketching from nature had become the mode” (Columbia). His work can be found at the Tate Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, and also...

Words: 1146 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Arts

...CUBISM 'Factory, Horta de Ebbo', 1909 (oil on canvas) PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) 'Factory, Horta de Ebbo', 1909 (oil on canvas) Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques. It was the first style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century in response to a world that was changing with unprecedented speed. Cubism was an attempt by artists to revitalise the tired traditions of Western art which they believed had run their course. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been the rule since the Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age. POP ART Andy Warhol – Mickey maus the early morning of July 18 in Stockholm, a major theft occurred. Unknown broke the door to the museum Aberga (Abergs Museum), stormed inside and stripped from the walls of famous works of masters of the pop art of Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol) and Roy Lichtenstein (Roy Lichtenstein). Robbers also took a poster to the old film The New Spirit, probably thinking that this is also Warhol. Police are looking for villains in the entire Stockholm, but the search has not yielded results. Stolen masterpieces of pop art experts estimated in 500 thousand dollars. The museum is named after the famous Swedish filmmaker, artist and musician Lasse Aberga (Lasse Aberg). In the 1960's, he was carried away by pop-art aesthetics, and in 1970 started...

Words: 1612 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

How Did the Impressionism Art Period Influence the Post Impressionism Period

...How did the Impressionism art period influence the Post Impressionism period Robert Perfili Western Governors University How did the Impressionism art period influence the Post Impressionism period. The approach to impressionism art evolved in France during the late 19th century. It was considered the most famous French painting movement ever. Prior to the Impressionist art period France was in turmoil due to the instability of government. It saw different forms of government rise and overtake others between the end of King Louis XVI in 1789 and the overthrow in 1851 of Napoleons vast empire which came to an end in 1870. At this time, France fell to Prussia and was governed by the Third Republic (Hammerstingl, 1998, 1999). Besides government turmoil, religions were faced with scientific advancements that questioned the origins of ancient scripture. The industrial expansion was beginning to take shape. Society as a whole was beginning to change. People during this century were very prejudiced against changes and fresh ideas. Especially those in influential positions like religious leaders and government officials. As a result, the Impressionist movement suffered because of this narrow minded thinking. This period was coming into view when society was on the verge of big changes. New inventions, the Industrial Revolution and the desire to separate from Romanticism were all factors inspiring the Impressionist movement. Even with all this exciting change, it was...

Words: 1398 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Art Timeline

...Art Timeline XXXXXXXX Axia College of University of Phoenix Introduction to Art ART 101 Introduction Breaking free of the naturalism of Impressionism in the late 1880s, a group of painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply expressing visual impressions, concentrating on symbolic meaning. The term Post-Impressionism was coined by the English art critic Roger Fry for the work of such late nineteenth century painters as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others (The Art Industri Group, 2002). Although often consciously at odds with one another and quite different in style, these artists are grouped under this common label that propelled art into the modern era. Rejecting the limitations of Impressionism and its strict and rigid beliefs, Post-Impressionism artists abandoned traditional subject matter and defined form with short brush strokes of broken color, thick, dark outlines, and simplified colors. In this timeline of Post-Impressionism oil paintings, the artwork exhibited will show the early stages of this French movement in early modernism, and the different techniques and uses of shape, color, outline, and form these artists incorporated to convey symbolic meaning and personal emotion. [pic] Fig. 1 1879 Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Grapes Paul Cézanne Oil on canvas Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia Apples, Peaches...

Words: 3515 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

France Period

...HISTORY OF FRANCE • 13th century Spreading the weight of vaults over a series of ribs, columns, and pilasters, Gothic architecture allows the dissolution of the wall. Windows in cathedrals and churches are filled with stained glass; the shimmering colored light transfigures the vast interiors. Depicting biblical stories, scenes from the lives of the saints, or single figures, stained-glass windows complement the sculptures on the exterior and the rites and ceremonies observed within. • 1209 The Albigensian Crusade is launched by Pope Innocent III with the help of Cistercian monks. While the original spark for this war springs from papal desire to extinguish the growing problem of heresy in the region surrounding Toulouse, the political struggle between the independent southern territories and lords from northern France, joined after 1226 by Louis VIII, plays itself out in a war. In 1229, Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, who had been Louis VIII's main adversary, is compelled to cede territory to the king's control. • ca. 1210–1250 Artists at Chartres install an elaborate and extensive program of stained-glass windows in the cathedral under construction there. In addition to religious and historical subjects, the intensely colored windows depict numerous scenes of tradespeople at work, including bakers, furriers, wheelwrights, and weavers. These tradespeople were likely contributors—through hefty taxes—to the construction of the church. • 1226 Louis IX (d. 1270), grandson...

Words: 10574 - Pages: 43

Premium Essay

Will Do Next Time

...Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank to accompany A First Look at Communication Theory Sixth Edition Em Griffin Wheaton College prepared by Glen McClish San Diego State University and Emily J. Langan Wheaton College Published by McGraw­Hill, an imprint of The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright Ó 2006,  2003, 2000, 1997, 1994, 1991 by The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may be reproduced in print form  solely for classroom use with A First Look At Communication Theory provided such reproductions bear copyright notice, but may not be reproduced in  any other form or for any other purpose without the prior written consent of The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any  network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. PREFACE Rationale We agreed to produce the instructor’s manual for the sixth edition of A First Look at Communication Theory because it’s a first-rate book and because we enjoy talking and writing about pedagogy. Yet when we recall the discussions we’ve had with colleagues about instructor’s manuals over the years, two unnerving comments stick with us: “I don’t find them much help”; and (even worse) “I never look at them.” And, if the truth be told, we were often the people making such points! With these statements in mind, we have done some serious soul-searching about the texts that so many teachers—ourselves...

Words: 159106 - Pages: 637