A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

My favorite work of art has to be "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat. In my 6 years of French lessons I had to do projects about impressionist artists three times and twice I picked Georges Seurat, specifically so I could talk about this painting.

The actual painting itself is interesting. It depicts people (and a random monkey) enjoying an afternoon in the park. The painting, created in 1884, was inspired by Seurat's visit to the island in 1881. The clothing on the women is beautifully done and the sailboats off in the distance make it seem like it would be a beautiful day to be outside. I like the non-detailed faces of the subjects because it makes it seem like they could be anyone: not just the people Seurat saw in the park.

The absolute coolest thing, in my opinion, about this painting is that it is done in pointillism. Pointillism is a form of painting invented by Seurat in which the painting is actually made up of millions of individual dots instead of brush strokes. To the viewers eye, it appears like one cohesive picture but if one looks really carefully, you can see the individual dots. Because of this painstaking process, the painting took 2 years to create.