1848 – 1907
Industrial Revolution II

Post-Impressionism
Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - 1884

Seurat, Grande Jatte, 1886

 

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Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - 1884, oil on canvas,  1884-86
(Art Institute of Chicago)

Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

 

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Allison wrote on Thursday, March 10, 2011

I’m actually shocked to find out that A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is so large; I had always envisioned it being so tiny. On another note, the speakers suggest that the figures in the painting are all bourgeoisie, but I beg to differ. The man in the bottom left hand corner sticks out like a sore thumb with his muscle shirt and as I examine the figures more so it seems that there are lower, middle and upper class people depicted. I’m just wondering if Seurat was influenced by the Communist Manifesto that had came out 30 years prior. One could read this work from a Marxist perspective, making a statement about the isolation of proletariat by the bourgeoisie (which is evident in the lack of lower class people on the Island).

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Where and When

Post-Impressionism<br>Seurat: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - 1884
France
1884-1900

Check this out as well

Seurat and the Making of La Grade Jatte (Art Institute of Chicago)

Georges Seurat: The Drawings (The Museum of Modern Art)

Georges Seurat and Neo-Impressionism (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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