A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884 | The Art Institute of Chicago

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1884–86, border added 1888–89

Georges Seurat (French, 1859–1891)

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris’s best friend Cameron Frye intensely studies this nearly ten-foot-wide painting during a scene set at the Art Institute. Featuring people of every age and social class on the banks of the River Seine, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 has captivated visitors ever since its arrival at the museum in 1924.

If we, like Cameron, come closer to the painting, figures and forms dissolve into dots and dashes of complementary colors laid side by side, characteristic of Seurat’s pointillist technique. Many smaller painted and drawn sketches and several larger canvases, in which Seurat laid out the parameters for the landscape and figures, led up to this majestically composed scene. Seurat returned to the work two years after its start date, amplifying the silhouettes of some figures and adding others. Some of these, like the monkey on the leash, seem so integral to the final composition that it is hard to imagine them as add-ons, but others, like the man carrying a rolled newspaper in the furthest distance, are barely noticeable. To the artist, however, every decision was essential to his aim of making a painting of modern life equivalent to a classical Greek frieze.

Status: On View, Gallery 240
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Georges Seurat
Title: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1884–1886
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right: Seurat
Dimensions: 207.5 × 308.1 cm (81 3/4 × 121 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 1926.224
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/27992/manifest.json

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Paris, Maison Dorée, 1, rue Laffitte, VIIIème Exposition de peinture, May 15–June 15, 1886, cat. 175.
Paris, Rue des Tuileries, IIème Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, August 21–September 21, 1886, cat. 353.
Brussels, Musée de l’Art Modern, IVe exposition annuelle de XX, February, 1887, cat. 1.
Paris, Pavillon de la Ville de Paris, VIIIème Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, March 19–April 27, 1892, cat. 1082.
Paris, 23 Boulevard des Italiens, Exposition de La Revue Blanche, Georges Seurat: Oeuvres peintes et dessinées, March 19–April 5, 1900, cat. 17.
Paris, Grandes Serres de la Ville de Paris (serre “B” de la Champs de la Reine, Aval-Alma), 21me Exposition de la Société des Artistes Indépendants. Éxposition Rétrospective Georges Seurat (1859-1891), 1905, cat. 18.
Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune et Cie, Georges Seurat (1859-1891), December 14, 1908–January 9, 1909, cat. 58.
Paris, Galeries Bernheim-Jeune, Exposition Georges Seurat, January 15–31, 1920, cat. 23.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Exhibition of Modern French Paintings from the Birch-Bartlett Collection, April–September, 1925, checklist no. 9.
Boston Art Club, Birch-Bartlett Collection of Modern French Paintings, December 9-16, 1925, checklist no. 26.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 370.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 324.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art of the United Nations, November 16, 1944–January 1, 1945, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat: Paintings and Drawings, January 16–March 7, 1958, cat. 101, traveled to New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Seurat: Paintings and Drawings, March 24–May 11, 1958.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300-1900, October 17–December 14, 1986, not included in the catalogue.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, A World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago 1893-1993, November 1–January 9, 1994, no cat. no, pl. 21.
Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat and the Making of ‘La Grande Jatte,’ June 16-September 19, 2004, cat. 80.

By descent to Mme. Seurat, the artist’s mother (died 1899), Paris, 1891; by descent to Emile Seurat, the artist’s brother; sold for 800 francs to Casimir Brû, Paris, 1900; given by him to his daughter, Lucie, Paris, 1900; Lucie Brû Cousturier and Edmond Cousturier, Paris; sold for $20,000 possibly through Charles Vildrac, Paris to Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett, Chicago, 1924; given to the Art Institute, 1926.

de Hauke 162

Audio Lecture: Science Chicago—A Technical Study of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte <li class="m-listing m-listing--inline m-listing--sound"> <div class="m-listing__link"> <div class="m-listing__meta--sound"> Audio Lecture: Science Chicago—A Technical Study of <em>A Sunday on La Grande Jatte</em> </div> <div> <audio class="video-js vjs-fluid m-vjs-audio " data-gtm-prefix="audio" data-gtm-title="Audio Lecture: Science Chicago—A Technical Study of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" controls > <source src="https://www.artic.edu/assets/d9683532-66fd-67c3-5588-021527d115af" type="audio/mpeg"> Your browser does not support the audio tag. </audio> </div> </div> </li>

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884

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About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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