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A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - Georges Seurat (1884 - 1886)

The subject of Seurat's painting is typically impressionist: the artist depicts various Parisians, from different social backgrounds, spending Sunday on the islet of La Grande Jatte, between Neuilly-sur-Seine and Levallois-Perret, one of the preferred destinations of the time. It is therefore impossible not to think of subjects so dear to Renoir, Caillebotte, or Degas.
However, there is a tangible difference at a formal level, which makes us realize that the impressionist season is waning, giving way to a new movement, Post-Impressionism. In this work, we do not see the feeling of spontaneity that was evident in the impressionist pieces, usually painted en plein air. On the contrary, in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the composition is stiff, rigid: it is as if Seurat proudly asserts that his painting, despite its subject, has very little in common with the real world.
The work, in fact, anticipates one of the central ideas of the Avant-Gardes that will characterize the twentieth century: art does not necessarily have to imitate reality; on the contrary. Seurat employs two strategies to express this concept through painting. The first is the abandonment of strict perspective adherence, as Manet had already done in his Luncheon on the Grass. The second is the pointillist technique, which contributes to stiffening the composition, distancing it from the faithful reproduction of reality. The path is laid out: within a few decades, art will definitively cease to serve reality and will limit itself to evoking emotions. [source Frammentirivista]

Associated LP of 1997