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Sunday On La Grande Jatte Analysis

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Imagine a painting comprised of thousands of tiny dots that have been strategically placed in a pattern to form an image.The pioneer of pointillism and Neo-impressionism Georges-Pierre Seurat sparked a new art movement and painting technique which was associated with creating the appearance of solid figures using points of pure color grouped together. His creation of this art style was inspired by his desire to abandon Impressionism. Seurat’s most famous paintings of the 19th century is the art piece made by Frenchman Georges Seurat called A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte which uses the pointillism approach. It was painted between 1885-1886. The technique he chose took much longer to produce, which is why it took him more than two years …show more content…

From the figures in the painting, you can see sunbathers, soldiers, men in top hats, women with parasols, dogs, and a monkey. According to an article, it states that “a monkey in French (and female) is known as “singesse,” denoting a prostitute. The smartly dressed woman is fishing — but for what” (“Seurat’s Grande Jatte”, n.d.). I found this interesting because when I first saw this painting, I first assumed it was just a regular painting of wealthy citizens relaxing and did not suspect anything of the monkey strangely being present. The women on the right is holding a leash to the monkey which many critics suspect that Seurat is trying to say through symbolism that this woman is a prostitute who is out for a stroll with her client and that she is “fishing” for more. On the left of the photo, you see a woman dressed in orange fishing by the water, which seems innocent. According to an online dictionary, the French word for fish is ‘pêcher’, which some believe is a plan on word as the French word for sin is ‘pécher’ (Dave, “The Psychology of Geometry”). References to prostitution used the words ‘pêche’ (fishing) and ‘péché’ (sin) a lot in French cartoons. The artist may be hinting that they are both prostitutes and demonstrates the art piece’s satirical nature. Not only are they suspect prostitutes, but they may have been proletarian women that have become superficially bourgeois through prostitution. Seurat adds another perspective to the comparison of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, hinting the superficiality and immorality behind the high class

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