I will be giving a visual description of the painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (shown above) by the painter Georges Seurat. This is my first time describing something using visual description and formal analysis, so bear with me! First of all, I chose this painting, because I first saw it as a mural in Saugatuck, an artsy town in Michigan, and I fell in love love with it. The actual piece is currently in the Art Institute in Chicago.
The first thing I notice whenever I see this painting, is the texture. Everything in this piece is made by only dots, which gives it kind of a feathery appearance. Multiple colors of dots make up each object in the painting, as well as the water in the background, and the shadows on the ground. Many different kinds of people make up this painting as well - high class with their fancy Sunday attire, the middle class with their Sunday best, and the lower class, all enjoying the grass and shade beside the lake, or river, whatever the body of water may be. The colors in this painting are in no way extremely bright, but because the colors are blended together within the dots, it makes the painting visually appealing, and interesting to look at. Because of the shadows, and the people who are up close, and then people that are further away, it gives a 3D feeling to the piece, which gives more interest to the painting. The word that I think of when I see this painting, is elegant.
I like your use of the adjective feathery, that is a good way to describe this painting.It is amazing that nothing but dots can create different dimensions.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is amazing that the entire piece was done with dots! I can't imagine how long that would take. I think elegant is a great way to describe the painting.
ReplyDeleteThis collaborative discussion really helps to admire art in a particular manner. It is amazing how we can see more details when someone else points them out. I really did not notice the shadows from the trees and the people the first time I saw this painting. Reading others’ visual descriptions makes us appreciate more the artist’s piece of art.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I do not recognize the different classes that you mentioned in your description. The only man that seems to be underdressed from the rest of the people in this painting is the one with the brown shirt. Other than that, I see why the word “elegant” comes to your mind!
Rocio
I love this painting and your description of the landscape. The dots do make it seem feathery and the grass almost three dimensional and blades of grass. It does appear that the aristocrats have joined the commoners on a Sunday afternoon!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rocio. If you don't take the time to really study a piece of art you can miss out on several details. I have had this painting in my house since I was a child and never picked up on some of the things that you described!
ReplyDeleteMelanie, you do a good job of describing the overall effect of the painting. Thanks for pointing out the different classes of people. I'm glad you also drew our attention to the shadows, because Seurat is actually trying to mimic, in paint the way we see light, which of course includes shadow. The dot technique is called "pointillism" and is used in printing color on paper, as well as on the screen. These dots are now called "pixels" in the digital world;-) Where did you get the image from. Make sure to add a link or a full attribution. What are the dimensions and materials? You can probably find this quite quickly on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThis is a nice painting! I like your description of it.
ReplyDelete