A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884

1884–86

Oil on canvas, 207.5 × 308.1 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago

Parisians of different classes spend a Sunday on a Seine island, in tiny, regular touches of color. It introduced the method known as neo-impressionism.

Where the Impressionists painted fast to catch a moment, Seurat worked for two years in systematic dots, and his figures stand still. The picture pointed beyond Impressionism.
It made its debut in Paris in 1886, at the group's eighth and final show.
Over short strokes in complementary colors, Seurat laid dots that merge from a distance.
Look at the painted border of blue, orange and red dots around the scene.
Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett gave it to the Art Institute in 1926.

The island's park drew Parisians in their free time. As Smarthistory points out, the figures do not interact with one another.

Pointillism: Painting in small dots of unmixed color meant to blend in the viewer's eye.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain