A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by George Seurat

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - George Seurat - Oil Painting Wall Decor

At a Glance

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - George Seurat - Oil Painting Wall Decor is part of our hand painted oil painting collection from the George Seurat Paintings selection. Each canvas is worked by a trained artist, then inspected before dispatch — a practical route to owning post-impressionist wall decor at a fraction of gallery pricing.

About the Artwork

1884-86
Oil on canvas
207.6 cm x 308 cm (81.7 in x 121.25 in)
The Art Institute of Chicago, United States.

Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was painted between 1884 and 1886. The depiction of a leisurely summer afternoon in a public park frequented by the Parisian bourgeois populace employed a theory based on current optical research. This research proposed dabs of color placed in close proximity on the canvas would resonate in a luminous blend on the viewer's retina. Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, shown at the final Impressionist exhibition, pioneered a more structured formal approach to art that came to be called Neo-Impressionism.

"Seurat's Grande Jatte is one of those rare works of art that stand alone; its transcendence is instinctively recognized by everyone. What makes this transcendence so mysterious is that the theme of the work is not some profound emotion or momentous event, but the most banal of workaday scenes: Parisians enjoying an afternoon in a local park. Yet we never seem to fathom its elusive power. Stranger still, when he painted it, Seurat was a mere 25 (with only seven more years to live), a young man with a scientific theory to prove; this is hardly the recipe for success. His theory was optical: the conviction that painting in dots, known as pointillism or divisionism, would produce a brighter color than painting in strokes.

"Seurat spent two years painting this picture, concentrating painstakingly on the landscape of the park before focusing on the people; always their shapes, never their personalities. Individuals did not interest him, only their formal elegance. There is no untidiness in Seurat; all is beautifully balanced. The park was quite a noisy place: a man blows his bugle, children run around, there are dogs. Yet the impression we receive is of silence, of control, of nothing disordered. I think it is this that makes La Grande Jatte so moving to us who live in such a disordered world: Seurat's control. There is an intellectual clarity here that sets him free to paint this small park with an astonishing poetry. Even if the people in the park are pairs or groups, they still seem alone in their concision of form - alone but not lonely. No figure encroaches on another's space: all coexist in peace.

"This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off! In this painting, Seurat has "stopped the world," and it reveals itself as beautiful, sunlit, and silent - it is Seurat's world, from which we would never want to get off."

Text from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces"

Our artists reproduce this fine art composition in oil on canvas by hand, preserving the tonal range that makes fine art oil painting so sought after for a hallway.

Materials & Craftsmanship

This is a genuine hand painted oil painting, not a canvas print. Our painters match the palette of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by eye and build up the fine art forms in thin layers, which is what gives the finished fine art oil painting its luminosity.

What Is Included

• Painted entirely by hand in oils on artist-grade canvas, with no giclée or inkjet process involved.
• Supplied with a 2-inch blank border on all four sides for flexible hallway display options.
• Sold studio-direct and shipped worldwide, with no intermediary markup.
• Available canvas sizes for this hand painted oil painting: 30 X 40 in, 36 X 48 in, 48 X 72 in.
• Choose from standard sizes or request a custom dimension to fit your wall.
• Flexible shipping through DHL, UPS, FedEx, USPS and partner networks.
• Free canvas stretching on wooden stretcher bars; custom framing available on request.
• You will receive a photo of your completed painting by email for sign-off prior to shipping.

Wall Decor & Gifting

Hang this fine art oil painting above a sofa, console, or bed to give a hallway an instant focal point. Its post-impressionist palette works with both minimalist and period interiors, and the piece also makes a considered gift for housewarmings, weddings, and art lovers.

Shipping & Guarantee

In short: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - George Seurat - Oil Painting Wall Decor combines a post-impressionist composition, a 100% hand painted oil painting process, and the flexibility of made-to-order canvas sizes — a dependable choice for fine art oil painting and hallway wall art.