"I got too close, and now all I can see are a whole bunch of dots no matter how far I back up..."
— Villager, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is an oil painting by artist Georges Seurat, made from 1884 to 1886.
Seurat intended to paint "ordinary people [and] ordinary life", and so the painting depicts upper-class Parisians relaxing on the banks of Île de la Grande Jatte, an island on the River Seine. Some art historians perceive it as a companion piece to an earlier work of Seurat's, Bathers at Asnières, which portrays working-class residents on the opposite bank. Unlike Bathers, however, Seurat painted Sunday in the pointillistnote style. It is one of the premiere examples of the technique and one of the major works of neo-impressionism.
It currently hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Tropes in this painting:
- Cast Full of Rich People: Most of the characters in the painting are implicitly of high class, thanks to indicators like outfits and military status.
- Classy Cane: The gentleman in the left foreground has a curved cane to help establish his wealth.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A painting titled A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte shows, well, people relaxing on La Grande Jatte in the afternoon.
- Gay Paree: Played With. At first glance the painting is a pretty, picturesque depiction of Paris, with well-off Parisians relaxing by the river. However, several other cues (most notably how most of them are bathed in shadow, and things that have been interpreted as allusions to prostitution) suggest it's less idyllic than it looks.
- Lying on a Hillside: The painting depicts several ordinary — and yet enigmatic — people relaxing on a sloping riverbank on a sunny afternoon.
- Parasol of Prettiness: Many of the Parisian ladies are carrying parasols to indicate their delicateness and wealth.
- The Place: The painting depicts a Slice of Life of aristocrats chilling in the Grande Jatte isle, as the title indicates.
- Slice of Life: Seurat aimed to capture the everyday lives of rich Parisians, so the painting shows people milling about and relaxing on the riverbank.
