Image: public domain, courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat, 1884–86

People of every age spend a sunny Sunday on La Grande Jatte, an island in the river Seine near Paris. Look closely: the whole scene is made of tiny dots of pure colour that blend together in your eye.

🧩 Build this painting as a puzzle

🏛 Enter the 3D museum

🎧 Audio guide available in the 3D museum

Did you know?

The canvas is huge: about 3 metres wide and 2 metres high.
Before the final painting, Seurat made many drawings and small oil studies to plan the people and the landscape.
It was first shown in May 1886 at the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition in Paris.
A few years later, in 1888–89, Seurat added a painted border of coloured dots around the edge.
The painting came to Chicago in 1924, and it has stayed at the Art Institute ever since.
It plays a part in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in a scene set at the Art Institute of Chicago.

About the artist

Georges Seurat (1859–1891) was born in Paris, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and died in Paris when he was only 31.

He invented a way of painting with tiny touches of pure colour that blend in the viewer's eye, and his huge A Sunday on La Grande Jatte launched Neo-Impressionism.

He worked on La Grande Jatte for about two years, making many drawings and small painted sketches before he painted the final canvas.

Georges Seurat ›

Where it is today: The Art Institute of Chicago · Museum page