Oil Sketch for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884"
Georges Seurat
1884
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 15.5 × 24.3 cm (6 1/8 × 9 9/16 in.); Framed: 25.4 × 35.6 cm (10 × 14 in.)
- Genre
- painting
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingnineteenth centuryPost-Impressionism19th centurypaintoil on panelplant materialfrenchsketchingwaterpanel paintingmenLeisureoil paint (paint)painting (image making)painting techniquesfiguresfashionwood (plant material)landscapeparkwomenlandscapesorganic materialoil paintingpanel (wood)european paintingdressesweather/seasonsSketchurban lifeNature
About
This small oil on thin wood panel is one of over 20 painted studies Georges Seurat made for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 . Although at first glance its composition seems similar to the finished canvas, its 20 or more figures have little to do with the final version. The trio at right with an elderly seated figure, for example, was completely rethought in the completed work, where they are replaced by a man in a top hat and a woman walking a monkey on a leash. This ironic combination of grand solemnity and wry humor is totally absent from the sketch’s awkwardly positioned figures.
