- Details
- Date: 1884
- Title: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
- Holder: Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist: Georges Seurat
- Movement: Post-Impressionism
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte painted from 1884 to 1886, is Georges Seurat's most famous work. It is a leading example of pointillist technique, executed on a large canvas.
Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park. He reworked the original and completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches. He sat in the park, creating numerous sketches of the various figures in order to perfect their form. He concentrated on issues of colour, light, and form.
The painting was first exhibited at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, then in August 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism.
Some additional paintings may be seen on this site in the Seurat Gallery.
- Details
- Date: 1869
- Title: La Vague (The Wave)
- Holder: Musee des beaux-arts de Lyon
- Artist: Gustave Courbet
- Movement: Realism
Courbet painted many works depicting the coast of the English Channel at Tourville and Etretat in the latter half of the 1860s. This coastline provided the stage for works by Corot, Boudin and Monet, and these artists were dubbed the Saint-Siméon Group after a site in this region. Courbet was one of the most active members of this group. In 1868 Courbet, Manet, Monet and Boudin participated in the International Seascape Exhibition in Le Havre. It is thought that Waves was painted on the coast at Etretat in 1869. Courbet's powerful brushwork can be seen in the expression of the constantly changing waves and sky. The huge waves with their white caps rise up and crash under the heavy sky. The waves eventually crash on the huge crags in the foreground. This transitory moment was captured on canvas by his virtuosity. Courbet created several other works on this subject in the same year.
Seven of these paintings may be found on this site in the Courbet Gallery.
- Details
- Date: 1879
- Title: Summer's Day
- Holder: National Portrait Gallery
- Artist: Berthe Morisot
- Movement: Impressionism
Summer's Day (or Jour d'eté) depicts two women seated in a row boat, and was painted in the Bois de Boulogne.
Morisot employed a rather unusual palette in this painting. She painted the dark blue coat of the woman on the right with cerulean blue which was rarely used by the Impressionists. The green foliage is painted in a mixture of emerald green, viridian, lead white and cadmium yellow. Cadmium yellow was not yet widely used at this time.
Ownership of the painting, part of the disputed Hugh Lane bequest, has been shared since 1959 between the National Gallery, London and the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. The painting is currently in the National Gallery.
In 1956, the painting was stolen from the Tate Gallery in London by two Irish students while it was on display there in order to highlight Ireland's claim to the Hugh Lane Bequest. It was later recovered after being left anonymously at the Irish Embassy.